(There’s a Johnny Cash song called “Your Own Personal Jesus” that I love. But that doesn’t have much to do with this. 
)
One of my favourite things about out church, is that we take time to celebrate life. Rather than sticking to a schedule and making it such a performance, our pastors and leaders take time to do life as part of worship. They take lots of time for baby dedications, celebrate milestones, tell stories, allow people to ramble through badly worded stories from their mission trips and share community. Church never feels disembodied from The Body there, if that makes sense.
This past Sunday, we celebrated our recent baptisms. Rather than dunking in a tank, our church gathers at English Bay on the Pacific Ocean near the Inukshuk. Then our pastors perform the baptisms in the bay. Sometimes it’s rainy and cold but this time it was relatively warm and sunny. Everyone cheers when the person comes up out of the water. Someone takes photos of the baptisms and then, two weeks later, they show all of the photos on a big screen in the church with beautiful music in the background. I have yet to watch one of this baptism slideshows without crying. The joy on each person’s face, their elation, the beautiful sense of community being demonstrated – it is very impactful for me.
After the slide show, one of the “baptised” shares a bit more about their journey and what lead them to make that decision to be water-baptised.
This past Sunday, a young woman shared about how her dreams had been dashed when she was rejected by the police academy, a career she’d planned and longed for. She sunk into a depression and was eventually invited to church by a friend. For two years, she came to church and eventually became a Christian. Soon, she decided to be baptised. It was a beautiful story. Clear, articulate and lovely, this young woman was clearly happy and felt connected not only to God but to her Home Group and the church as a whole.
But my favourite part?
She called him “my Holy Spirit”.
Not “The Holy Spirit”.
“My Holy Spirit.”
“My Holy Spirit showed me that I needed to learn to trust and to take this step….My Holy Spirit and I talked it over one night….”
I just loved that. It was obviously so real to her, so personal, that it was all her own.
After reading “The Shack“, my entire concept of the Trinity and my relationship with God has shifted. This young girl at church just turned me another few degrees yesterday.
I can see that God is doing something to my prejudices and pre-conceived ideas. I am being challenged at every corner.
In short, my Jesus is messing with me.
