Thursday afternoon, a lot of things happened. I removed all my devotionals, all my Christian self-help books (Boost your prayer life and experiencing spiritual breakthroughs, and I threw all the about-God and about-doctrine books in a box and shoved them in the closet. I am so sick and tired of three-point sermons and six-steps spiritual fix-its. For so long I've been aiming at knowing about God, that I have been neglecting knowing God personally. I am tired of creation-vs.-evolution, is-baptism-essential-for-salvation, is-there-soul-sleep debates and it is EATING MY BRAINS OUT! I ache and long to know God personally, intimately; He the Lover and I the Beloved. I have been drawing closer over the last few days, as he has been pulling strings to get me closer to him, and it's been wonderful. He isn't so much a theological statement as a Father and Lover.

My friend Dylan Yosick and Iwere re-baptized in the creek at North Park. I just felt God putting this on my heart, and I pulled them aside before the prayer groups at lunch and expressed what I was planning to do. Dylan said, "I want to be baptized, too." None of us had been baptized since rededication to Christ. The water was freezing, but it didn't matter, because when I came out of the water, the colors and sounds and air of the woods just exploded vibrantly, and joy seared through me; it was as if God was saying, "I love you. I love you."