Testimony

Last weekend I was baptized. Baptism, in the church I go to, happens as an adult and is a public affirmation and proclamation of a believer's acceptance of Jesus Christ as his or her personal Lord and Savior. In its simplest form, this means that I believe that Jesus, who was fully human and fully God, accepted the punishment for my sins so that God sees me as perfect and I can therefore spend eternity with him in paradise.

As part of baptism, the pastor says a little bit about how I came to accept Jesus. Below is the testimony that I emailed him.

"I was raised Catholic. I even went to Catholic school for 12 years. However, I never felt any real connection to God. I felt the oppression of rules and the guilt of not being able to live up to standards, but God's grace eluded me. It was not until I was twenty-two, just out of college, and living in a very awful little studio apartment that God's pull finally got through to me. It happened gradually, over the course of months. Once, I was sitting in church with one of my clients (I worked in a group home for adults with developmental delays) and I felt Jesus drawing me nearer. It almost felt like being lifted from my seat. It was dizzying, exciting, and comforting all at once. This was the moment that I decided to let God into my life. Later, one of my co-workers lent me C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. At one point in the book, the author argues that Jesus is either the Son of God, or he was a lunatic. There is nothing in between. I was sitting on my big bed in my tiny apartment when I read this. I stopped for a moment, then reread that passage several times. This was the moment that Jesus Christ became my Savior."