Zahnpaste: 4/23: beautiful day

saturday was brad's baptism! yay! i called him that afternoon to tell him i was going to pick him up at a certain time, and i could hardly contain my excitement over the phone. haha. by the sound of his subdued voice, i'm sure he thought i was being this weird and overdramatic old fogie. haha.

there have been a bunch of baptism services over the years, and several that have been super-special for me, being able to go in the water with those being baptized, being able to personally place your hand on them as they symbolically begin their new life. those moments are always special. cindy was my closest friend when she was baptized years ago, and sharing that moment with her showed me that our friendship wasn't just fun and games, but that God was present too. louise was someone i felt personally responsible for when she was baptized last semester. her new salvation lent me our relationship a feeling of significant discipleship. being able to share in her baptism also gave me so much joy (despite the hiccups during the actual service) because it truly was confirmation that God had saved her and given her new life, and seeing her live out her new life this past year has been a continual reasons for thanksgiving to God.

so unsurprisingly, for brad, there was the same uncontainable joy. but the difference was that he wasn't a close friend or someone i was personally discipling. he was different. when he first asked me to go in the water with him, i was a little surprised. i hadn't been as heavily invested in his life as i could have been. but one thing's for sure -- i love this kid. i really love him. i remember meeting him at the undergrad retreat in october, when he was a complete stranger, when i thought he was this "too-cool-for-school" freshie who prolly thought our life group was weird and thought this retreat was super-uncomfortable. but i still remember that last night of the retreat, when p. seth asked us to go around and pray for people, and i saw him sitting nearby and went up to him. he was in such a different place back then. hearing him share so vulnerably and so openly with such a broken heart -- it broke mine too. gone were the judgments and assumptions. sitting beside me was someone who was dying for God's love, and that made me so sad because it was so clear to me that God loved him so much, and that it was God's drawing and pulling love that even brought him to spend an entire weekend with a group of random strangers in the first place. when i was praying for him, i felt like in that small shared space, there was a genuine intercession, and i could tell that the Holy Spirit was moving during that time of prayer together.

since then, i've had a huge soft spot for him. seeing brad grow has been such a blessing. sure, i've "aww"-ed at the milestones of his faith this year, and those "aww" moments are no joke. he came in, lost, confused, and thirsty for love. and over this past year, he has been experiencing Christ's abundant and beautiful love for him, and i'm so thankful. the work that Christ has done in his heart is simply amazing, and its not only been a privilege to be able to see this kid slowly restored into a relationship with Christ, but its also been such a gift from God this past year. this kid is the picture of Christ's love and what Christ's love can do to even the farthest and hardest of hearts.

after baptism, a handful of people commented that i must have been close to brad since i was in the water with him. i'd like to think it was because of that prayer time during the undergrad retreat or because i'm some great Christian role model (haha). but i really think its solely because of God's love. experiencing, knowing, and receiving the love of Christ has been the theme of this year for him. and i don't want to sound arrogant -- i think this is just an honest assessment/reflection -- but i think God used many people in the church community to show Him Christ's abundant love, one of those people being me. i love brad. i really do. i can't help loving him. and he's not like this superstar freshie who goes to every single event or meeting. he's not like this rising underclassman who heads up all these outreach things and brings his friends to life group meetings. he's just this super-cute freshie, this adorable little underdog, a guy i cannot help but love just for the way that he is, just for being him. and i think that's what brad experienced about Christ's love this year. God loves him for who he is. for simply being, God is crazy about him. after brad got baptized, i was so happy that i couldn't stop "aww"-ing and staring up at him. haha. after a while, he put his hand up in a stance of resistance and said, "whoa, lisa, there's just a little too much love here." at first, i thought he was being serious, but seeing the sneaky smile on his face, i knew that he was rejoicing inside too.

brad laughing at me for taking so many unnecessary pictures. "what are you doing?" he asked, chuckling.

it was also a huge blessing to see dan get baptized. i remember meeting with him in february (and blogging about it too haha), and that meal we were able to share together was so good. it was good because as i was able to share openly and vulnerably about what God started in chile, i think the Holy Spirit was continuing to solidify a lot of truths about Christ's love into his heart that night. and over this past year, it's been awesome to see him grow as a Christ-follower and beloved son of God. i remember him last year -- he was a quiet, gentle, and committed kid. though he was fairly taciturn, i could tell that this was a genuinely good-hearted, kind, and compassionate guy with a heart that was bursting with a quiet, under-the-radar, but still beautiful love for people. and i'm so thankful that he is finally able to receive Christ's love for him, and i hope that one day, he'll also be able to see the wonderful guy that is so clearly seen by everyone around him.

man. like i've said before, its such a blessing to see the fruits of life group ministry. to see dan testify to God's love, to take that step of faith in front of the whole congregation, brought tears to my eyes (as im sure it did to many eyes that afternoon). sitting there, i was seriously so happy to see him know Christ's love in a deeper way. God, thank You so much for working and growing in dan's heart this past year. it's amazing. You really love this kid, and all the prayers and conversations that were sown in -- it was all worth it. sometimes we don't get to see the fruit to the seed we sow, and all we can do is trust. but when we do have the honor of seeing the fruit, it's an undeserving privilege and one of the best things in the world.

dan!

and of course, it's the same feeling for brad. who would've thought that this kid our life group had met at the undergrad retreat would have been such an indescribable blessing to our life group and would have been baptized at the end of the year without prodding or provocation?

brad's testimony also brought tears to our eyes...we older sisters for sure were bawling

beloved freshies :)

brad & his fan club (aka ladies of life group)

one of the more rabid fans

COD and dan

i love you, brad! :)

afterwards, we went to red robin for dinner, which was such a great chill time for our life group as our year together drew to a close. eunil said over dinner, "aww, this is the perfect way to end life group" (meaning with brad's baptism), and on that saturday night, still sunny, no one in that table could disagree. there was this atmosphere of joy, of lightheartedness, of genuine enjoyment of one another's company that warmed my heart. i left that dinner with one of those rare warm and fuzzy feelings. i'm so thankful for this life group and how much God has brought this random group of strangers into such a solid, loving community. this group shows me how much i'm going to miss undergrad ministry.