Something Bigger Than Me...

You can Check out the video of the baptisms HERE. I recommend it. People getting baptized in their regular street clothes.

I have been wrestling with God a lot lately it feels like. I think it’s a healthy thing sometimes. It allows me to come to my own understanding of what God is trying to do in my life.

One of the things I have been working through is that I have been teaching students that we are apart of something bigger than ourselves. The fact is that we are so naturally self-centered, and it seems, not matter how hard we try, it’s really hard to resist not being selfish. The thing is, we are all apart of a story and we just assume that the story is about us. The story is not ours. It’s God’s. We are apart of His story and we allowed being apart of it.

I am reading a book called “Radical” by David Platt (check it out HERE). In it he talks about how we have lost the idea that we are apart of something bigger than ourselves. We have lost the mission that Jesus explained to his disciples. When Jesus was telling his disciples to go out and make more disciples, he told them that they were going to be “sheep among the wolves” that they were going into battle with the world to fight for the lost because they are worth fighting for.

Platt explains that we were designed like the USS United States in the 1950’s. This ship was a huge fighting machine. It was designed to mobilize 15,000 troops anywhere in the world in less than 24 hours. Massive, massive ship built for war. The thing is, it was NEVER used for its purpose. It was turned into a luxury liner for presidents and celebrities and it was only able to fit around 2,000 for comfort.

This is what Christianity has become and what Platt compares it too. We were built for war. But we have become a luxury liner. Notice how when on a mission, the USS United States was able to mobilize 15,000 troops. When used for luxury, it only held 2,000. Big difference. Much like Christianity, when Christ gave us our Great Commission he was sending us out on a mission to reach millions. The 12 disciples alone helped the church explode across the world in a matter of a short time. Today, we are comfortable here in America, we have become luxury liners, comfortable with where we are at not reaching, as many people for Christ like we were built to do.

We are involved in something bigger than us, which requires us to be the war ship rather than the luxury liner. I have taught it but I don’t think I have fully understood what it means or what it feels like…until last night.

Last night I was able to be apart of the 5:30pm baptism service at CCV. I was honored to be able to be in one of the baptism pools on the side of the stage when Jeff Vines (our senior pastor) called people to come forward if they have not been baptized and called themselves a Christian. I was blown away at the response. This was the first time that I was able to be apart of baptizing people on a large scale like that. It was amazing. I don’t even know how many people came forward, but there was a time when another pastor had to jump into the pool with me in his jeans because the line was so long. This had to be just a little feeling of what those people in Acts 2 felt like. It was awesome. There were 133 baptisms total this last weekend. Two of the ones I did were students of SHIFT Students. Super pumped.

I think was the first time I fully realized and understood that I truly was apart of something bigger than myself. It was a truly humbling experience.

Random Fact: Riding a rollercoaster can temporarily 'cure' asthma.