Not a concern, not an ailment, just wanting to share if that's alright.
On Easter Sunday, the day which He was risen, I was blessed enough to be baptized. I was the lone individual to be re-born that day and I was asked to deliver a testimony before the act to my congregation.
I began writing my testimony on a plane while travelling south for some training courses for work. I had to stop halfway. I began to feel tears forming and a lump building in my throat. I had to put away my book and pen and pull out the latest issue of traditional bowhunter.
On Sunday, I again felt a lump building and tears forming as I stepped down into the tank, before a word was spoken. My Pastor had asked a friend and colleague whom I have leaned heavily on in discussions of faith over the last year or so to deliver a blessing before I spoke. Before Ken was halfway through his speech I was in tears.
I struggled through my testimony. While eloquently written, it was delivered with far less grace and composure. I spoke of my earliest memories of Christ, sunday school and what I believe to be the most vivid display of absolute faith (Issac and Abraham). I weaved in a few favourite verses (Rom. 6:23, Gen. 9:2) and my favourite parable (the three soils). I even got a quote by Johnny Cash worked in there;
"I have learned there is no fence to sit upon between heaven and hell. There is only a gulf, a deep chasm, and that chasm is no place for any man"
I had a hard enough time getting through the first half. When I spoke about my wife and son I lost it entirely. I regained it enough to tell of the moment when I surrended my life to Jesus, but broke again when I recalled the birth of my son and how hard the doctors had to work to encourage him to breath on his own.
I closed with a line from a Garth Brooks song;
"I know there'll be rough waters and I'm bound to take some falls. But with the Good Lord as my Captain, I can make it through them all".
I turned to my Pastor, answered his questions about following Christ in the affirmative and was plunged and reborn to a life knowing Jesus.
One of my friends that does not regualarly attend church commented that he did not know you had to fill the tank with your own tears before a baptisim. A good natured rib, but not entirely inaccurate.
I generally have no problem addressing the public, but that was by far the most emotional moment of my life. It struck me so hard, it's difficult to even explain. A completly new set of emotions unlike any I have ever experienced before, not during my wedding, not during the birth of my son, completly unique. At least I wasn't the only one crying by the end. I saw more than a few men and women in the pews wiping their eyes.
Topic: just sharing (Read 1772 times)
