A Step of Faith

Some of the things that I have been writing about are things I felt I had to say.  That has made it easier to write about.  This is not like that; this is more of an exercise in writing. I am going to write about a step of faith. We’ll see how it goes.

We had a wonderful church service this Palm Sunday, and at least five people took a step of faith. I say “at least”, because hopefully more than that took a step of faith that morning. We all need to take a step of faith every day. But this Sunday five people took a very public step of faith through baptism. It was pretty cool.

Two teenage boys, one girl, I think she was thirteen, a middle-aged man, and a 91-year-old man. All of them declaring publicly their decision do follow Jesus. Taking a step of faith. As I think about it, what a wonderful spectrum of life.  The two teenage boys had recently been saved and wanted to be baptized. The girl had grown up in the church and as her faith grew, she decided to take the next step of baptism.  The middle-aged man had come to our church, from a different church and a different state, following his journey of faith and he wanted to be baptized.  All of them, in different stages of life, growing closer with Jesus. One step at a time.  

And then, the 91-year-old, a man who was miles ahead of me in his journey.  A man who has lived his life for God.  A godly man.  And he wanted to take this step of faith. He had been baptized as a six-year-old child, 85 years ago. But he wanted to declare his allegiance to God again as an adult.  And it challenged me. I want to be taking steps of faith as long as I am able.  

And the coolest thing about this man was that he was baptized by his son. That man I’m talking about is L.G. Engle, some of you know him.  Many of you also know my pastor, Perry Engle.   Well, Perry baptized his dad, it was so cool.  The man who raised Perry to follow God was himself following God.  And now, Perry gets to baptize him. It was an emotional moment.  I asked Perry if it was sort of like when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and he said yes, it sort of was.

Faith is a journey; it seems like that to me anyways.  It’s a journey made with steps of faith.  Some of them are public, some of them are more personal, hidden in your heart.  One foot after the other.  One step of faith at a time.  

I was baptized as a kid.  At that time, I didn’t realize what it meant. In hindsight, I realize it was the first step of a journey.  An amazing journey through the last 50 years. A journey that began with a step, a step of faith. And it is a journey I am still on.  I have some more walking to do. That is how I want to live. Step by step, until my last day.