Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Growing up in a church that baptized only those who were old enough to make a decision to follow Christ for themselves, left me with the impression that one had to reach perfection before baptism and continue not sinning after one has been baptized. It left me exhausted and often feelings of intense guilt would arise for my times of failure. In her book God Gets Everything God Wants Author Rev. Dr Kate Hays main theme in her book is that God gets what God wants, because what God wants is you. What struck me the most though, was her baptismal example when she explained that it’s about grace, not perfection. As she puts it “If we filled up this cattle trough and dunked you right now, with your head and heart filled to the brim with everything, you’d be right back here in five or ten or twenty years, saying you didn’t know a damn thing today. God is always going to be showing us something new we couldn’t have understood before.” She concludes this example by saying, “You don’t need a new baptism. You just need to grow into the one you’ve already got.”
Our baptism is one of grace that we seek to grow into. It is comforting to know that when we take time to remember our baptism, we are also remembering the grace bestowed upon us. The grace that covers our sins once and for all. I find it comforting to know that God doesn’t expect perfection because God’s grace covers our mistakes. In these changing times we will be trying new things. Some may be fruitful while others won’t. However, we must keep in mind that we don’t seek perfection we seek to live into the grace bestowed upon us in our baptism. May we continue seeking our way forward leaning on grace together.
In His Peace,
Pastor Nicki
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