Got drenched

I was baptized on Sunday. Oh yeah, it is January and it has been raining all week long = freezing cold Pacific Ocean! Oh yeah, that's right. I got baptized in the Pacific Ocean! It was amazing!

I remember every specific experience in that one hour. Dear friends gathered around at the beach and surrounded us five to be baptized.

We (those to be baptized) shared our stories of how we got to this point. Souls were bared with humility and grace. Beauty. Inside and out. What a perfect and celestial setting to share such righteous words from our hearts.

We all prayed. Tears were welling up in people's eyes, hands placed on shoulders and backs, comforting, encouraging words of light and truth were lifted up. It was truly heavenly.

Then, one by one we went out to the water waist-deep and were dunked.

Now, this was an interesting moment for me. Let me try to walk with you through it by just you reading this now.

I'm walking out with my dear friend, mentor and brother to the ocean. It was so cold that it awakened me. I cannot remember being so aware of the earth than I was when I stepped into that frigid and overwhelming ocean.

Once we got knee-deep, a terrible thing happened. The waves swelled and crashed. I have never felt so cold in my life. It was like my body was about to go into shock. Yet it was so spiritual for me. I mean this is life, isn't it? It is refreshing and scary and freezing and moving sometimes... all at the same time.

We made it. I was dunked. I remember being completely submerged. I didn't notice the salt or how cold it was in that moment. I just remembered being washed clean. As soon as I came up out the water the first thing I heard was cheering coming from the shore. My brother and I embraced and I couldn't help but just weep in pure joy.

I got back to the sand and was embraced all the more by my friends, my family really, and was wrapped in dry towels (thank God!).

Forever I will remember these words, "You are the warmest thing in this ocean right now and the ocean thanks you for it. And now when you walk into a room, you will be the warmest person in it."

Thank God for the Refresh Button.