Baptism

This last Sunday I was lucky enough to see my youngest brother get baptised. Now people have lots of ideas about baptism, what it is, why you do it etc...so I just wanted to spend a few moments talking about why he decided to get baptised and why over 14 years ago I got baptised too.

So first of all, to clarify, we are talking about full immersion baptism (otherwise known as believer's baptism, or "the real thing"); not christening or infant baptism where you get sprinkled with water. Here, you go fully under the water, to symbolise leaving your old life behind (dying), and then come up out of the water to symbolise the fact you now have a new life (being raised). 

On Sunday my brother Dan told the whole Church that he was getting baptised because he had seen God's power in his own life and wanted to live the life that God wanted him to live. It was so flipping powerful - like he's 12, and he was really eloquent in why he had come to make this decision. So my parents baptised him.

(can't work out how to rotate this...sorry!)

It wasn't just him who got baptised on Sunday - 3 others from the youth group went for it too. In a world which rarely praises young people I was SO proud of them for being brave enough to publicly say that they loved God and wanted to live for him. 

It made me reflect a bit on the journey I have come on since getting baptised myself. I got baptised when I was 11 after deciding that I wanted God to be in control of my life because I figured he knew better than I did. It was easy to say that as an 11 year old, most people knew better than I did...growing up it got harder to allow God to stay in control. You see developing a relationship with God is kind of like a graph like this:

There are definite high and low points. Places where you feel incredibly close to God, and times when you wonder whether he really exists at all. Times when you have lots of questions and can be prone to doubt, times when your faith is unshakable. 

I have learnt so much about God, who he is, what his heart is, what he asks from me over the years and it is pretty epic looking back and seeing how much he has changed me into the person I am today. 

It all started when I got baptised. 

Bastille and Ikea

Safe to say this week has been WEIRD! 

Like I blogged on Monday night about how life is busy but good. And that is defo still the case. But this week has been the most random assortment of spontaneous events ever!

So on Tuesday I got offered a ticket to go see Bastille (click on the link if you have no idea who they are) in Brixton. Now seeing as I have listened to their album Bad Blood on almost repeat on Spotify I was WELL up for going! And so just like that I went on Tuesday night with my friend Sarah to see them perform. They were flipping immense! Like so incredibly good. I haven't been to many gigs at all but the vibe was brilliant - everyone was singing along and dancing away. I was loving it. I tried to take a pic with my new phone...

...still got a bit of work to do with the ole working the features out. 

Then yesterday my house group was cancelled because one of my leaders wasn't feeling great. So instead I had a little cleaning session (with the bleach - proper cleaning!) of the bathroom which actually made me giddy with happiness. As not only did it smell all clean and happy, but it was all shiny too. It's the little things. 

BUT THEN, I went for a spontaneous Chinese with my friends and then beat my friend James at pool. Cracker of an evening.

Today has been jam-packed but the highlights include:

• Seeing Dave (intern on my team) give a WINNER of a presentation - was SO good!
• Writing our boss a "get well soon" card, complete with comforting poem (and picture)
• Taking the girls from my girls group on a trip to Ikea to buy cooking equipment and it being actually the funniest trip EVER! Tested nearly every bed there. 

And now tomorrow instead of my normal day I'm going to Tunbridge Wells to speak on the topic of "hope"...

...a bizarre week. #lovingit