Reflections on the Water

I think I got a little sore from baptising Sunday.  That is not a brag but a admission of my age.  It was a neat baptism - a very memorable one, but not the most memorable one.  Right now what stands out in my mind is baptising three international students earlier this summer. 

It really boggles my mind that I got to baptize three students from China, the land of Lottie Moon.  Lottie gave her life to missions and laid down her life by giving her food away to the people she loved in a famine.  She died on ship as other missionaries tried to get her home. 

What would she have said if she could have been at Northside that day?  How could she ever have dreamed that the great grandchildren of the people she ministered to would come to America and come to know Christ?  It would have been beyond her dreams and beyond her imagination.

I wonder what Charlie Culpepper would have said if he could have been in worship with us that day?  Charlie grew up in Karnes County, Texas but God called him to China.  He was a part of a great revival there.  His reports home were so incredible in the numbers of people coming to Christ, the Foreign Mission Board sent people to check out what he was saying.  It was true; God did a mighty work.  What would he have said to see the grand children of the people he went to China to reach being baptized in Victoria, Texas?  Could he ever have prayed a prayer that big?

On any given day, God can answer in a way that goes beyond our prayers, beyond our imagination, for His glory.  Maybe today or tomorrow or Sunday could be such a day for you.  How great is our God!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21

Handling Change

I watched two children walk toward the water.  It was a hot day at children's camp along the Frio River so they were not alone but they also stood out from the giggling, screaming, splashing throng going down to the river. 

The girl had on pink flip flops that matched her pink bathing suit that matched the pink bow in her hair.  Yes, a pink bow in her hair to go swimming. She stepped to a shallow spot in the pool and ever so gingerly placed one foot in the frigid water and quickly pulled it back.  Then in a moment of great resolve stuck that foot back in the water and left it there and shuttered as she eased her other foot into the pool.

The boy walked past me as I stood watching the girl's precise, painful adjustment.  His rumpled bathing suit seemed a bit too large for his scrawny, tan body.  Perhaps it was a hand me down?  It did not look like he had combed his hair that day. One pocket of his trunks was pulled inside out and bounced as he walked barefoot toward the deep end of the swimming hole. 

Without breaking stride he stepped to the edge of the concrete platform and then off into the deepest water of the pool.  His head soon came up and with a breath taking, "Haaaa" he expressed his sudden adjustment to the Frio's water.  He swam over to a group of friends and began to splash and play with them.

I looked back over at the girl.  She was now in thigh deep water, slowing, haltingly edging forward and deeper.  She was stooped over a little with her arms wrapped around her chest like she was facing a January "norther."  Her skin seemed to be turning more pale and the discomfort of adjustment was written on her face.  I looked back at the boy.  He had blended in to the thrashing throng that is a children's camp swim time.

Change.  It always has some discomfort.  It always requires adjustment.  Perhaps it is better and easier to just dive right in.  There are a lot of changes happening at Northside.  This website and this blog are just a few.  Its my hope that you will just dive right in and find that there are a lot of other people joining you and after a moment of adjustment, this all can be pretty enjoyable.

For the journey,
Tim