water water everywhere

so i got baptized for the first time today: april 18, 2010 (i realize that the post is not ‘today’, you caught me, i was a few days late on clicking the publish button). now i will tell you why…

give or take a week, thailand celebrates songkran, or its new year, as a water festival every april 13-15. traditionally, thais go back to their homes and bless one another (and the local buddha) with an anointing of water. according to wikipedia, “the most obvious celebration of songkran is the throwing of water”—this is an understatement:  if you are driving along on a motorbike, you will most assuredly be broadsided from the sidewalk with a bucketful of water in your face, regardless of the speed you are going; if riding along in a songthaew, whether dressed in your business suit or bikini, you also will targeted and arrive at your destination completely soaked. for the thais, there is no malice involved in this general dousing of the population, rather, smiles and dancing accompany both the blesser and the blessee. my first few days of the festival were spent in my bathing suit on the island of koh chang, throwing water and dancing on the sidewalk and then throwing water from the back of my trek guide’s truck. then i spent a day participating in a friend’s city on a much larger scale, fully clothed and dripping for our hour trip back to pattaya. and finally on the big, last day–the nineteenth–we all walked down to beach road and played in water, clay and suds until late into the evening. stages with traditional music, reggae bands, and street dancing all led up to the main stage where hoards of wet ones were covered in a steady stream of h2o coming from hoses up above the crowd. it was fantastic–water parks have nothing on this holiday–and now i am well ready to be dry and have un-pruny (i think that is the technical term) skin.

and so there was water.

a week prior to this, as i set my head down on my pillow ready for a snooze, God seemed to say, “now is the time.” and so i rolled over and promptly said to jessica, “i think i’m ready to be baptized.” amidst a time when all others were celebrating blessings and cleansing for a new year, i dunked into a cleaner season of blessed new life. though i ‘asked Jesus to come into my heart’ at the ripe age of six, baptism was always presented to me as an added option, never an requirement tacked onto my salvation (thank you, mom and dad, for ‘keepin’ it real’). for years it never became a desire of heart, and thus always represented a religious ritual in my mind, and i did not want to partake of it until my heart asked. it started making mention of such about a year ago, on my first trip to thailand. and all that i have experienced since has slowly built up to this climax–of praying for a way to show publicly what God has done privately within me–i want the world to know that i am His. it is an action of accepting my consecration to Himself, to complete abandonment of myself to His will, and one that reflects my being ‘seized by the power of a Great Affection’. i do not want anything to hinder my steps, i want to run free in spirit as well as in body, and now i am assured (if the baptists turn out to be right) that baptism of my body is pushed aside. this leaning back into the waves also symbolizes my accepting His human creation, me, cleansing it from all sin and walking in this reality (with fear and trembling, to be sure).

and so, already drenched in water from the songtheaw ride over to the beach, i stood together in the late afternoon with three thais and three foreigners who prayed over me–and then walked into the waves with ying and jessica, and took the plunge. it seems fitting to mention here, as you are all imagining a rather pristine and romantic scene, that this water is possibly the dirtiest stretch of ocean i have come into contact with yet: brown instead of blue, and trash of all sorts floating above the slimy bank (not to mention i peed in it as i waded in). nevertheless, today it was the holiest of waters, and i hesitated not to be covered in all its goodness. i would like you all to know, dear post readers, that the most difficult part of the ceremony was not having all of you there with me…to share in the celebration. but like all other events that have occurred on this side of the globe, i know that your spirits play with me, and love is not bounded by country lines.

“i have decided to follow Jesus; i have decided to follow Jesus; i have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back, no turning back…”