Kelly and I have had the pleasure of serving in the baptistery at our local church. We have been able to hear many firsthand stories of how people came to know Christ.
They bring a change of clothes and get ready in rooms with a sign reading "Changing Room" beside each doorway. The signs are meant to designate where to change clothes.
As we talk and pray with each person getting baptized, we often refer to the "Changing Room” sign. They are now changed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
In Rick Warren's book, "God's Power to Change Your Life" he states "The initial turning point is when we commit our lives to Christ. We are not the same anymore; a new life has begun." He also states "The change does not come all at once. It may take time.”
I had a boss working with me one day about 18 years ago. I was driving his car and he was in the passenger seat. He wanted to get his car washed before he left town. It was the type of car wash you drive in, put your car in neutral, and it automatically takes you through the car wash. Apparently I was not used to this kind of car wash. I left the car in drive and we were through the wash in no time. As we exited my boss looked around like, is that it? That was fast. Is my car really clean? When he realized what I had done he laughed so hard I thought we were going to have to clean the inside of the car too.
About 8 years ago I made another car wash memory. As a family we were getting our mini-van washed. Kelly and I were sitting up front with our three children in the back. As we were going through the car wash things got crazy. Connor was three years old and sleeping in the back when he was awakened by water hitting his face. We were going through the car wash with one of our back windows open. In a panic a wrong button was hit and another window started coming down instead of the one going up. As we left the car wash in disbelief we were soon able to find the humor in the situation and had a good laugh together (after Connor stopped crying).
Sometimes we may speed through the whole process and check the "I got baptized" box. We speed through the process like I did at the first car wash. We may accept Christ, get baptized, and say that's it. We never really get past the starting line and letting God take charge of our life.
Or like the second car wash, we may leave a couple of windows down in certain areas of our life. We welcome God to clean us on the inside in those areas. However, other areas we choose to stay in control, leave the windows up, and declare it good enough.
Change is a process and a life long journey. Sometimes there is a gap between when we accept Christ and when we really begin to lean into our faith.
Can you imagine if those of us that call ourselves followers of Christ rolled all the windows down and boldly let God take control of all the areas of our life?
Just like in our mini-van, it would get a little crazy......
Robb
