Grant gets baptized @ Willow Lake June 22, 2008 too!
Some Day
When I got up this morning I didn’t know it would be “some day.” Many of you have watched the movie Groundhog’s Day with Bill Murray and you know that he had “some day” - make that lots and lots of “some days” that in the end turned his life around for the good. Well, the thing is you never know when you are going to wake up and have that “some day.” Today was my “some day.” It started out normal enough for a Sunday morning, but something was already telling me that today was not going to be a normal day. Maybe it was the fact the Cubs had won 13 straight home games and were in first place, or that it was one of those perfect weather days, or perhaps it was that my heart had grown three sizes that day — no! no! no!– that’s another story.
Grant and I drove to church in separate cars, because I was invited to witness the baptism of one of my former Northwest Christian Academy students at the lake after the service. Bill, that is Hybels, gave a heavy message (pun intended) about weighing out your life decisions and how that takes faith and guts. In fact, in his characteristically awful artful way he drew out his point with many, many crude looking scales. “God” or something very important that related to a person’s walk with God (like baptism) was always on one side of the scale and usually something trivial like a Jesus window sticker was on the other side (Bill’s coolness). The audience was held spellbound with each weighty decision that Bill made in his life choosing the God side of the scale over the trivial side (his family, the business he had been groomed for all his life, and all that money). And each time the scale tipped toward God; Bill felt so great to get God’s approval and praise!
At long, long last he got to the point of his talk, and put baptism on the God side of the scale and proceeded to put our trivial reasons for putting off baptism (I don’t look good in drippy wet clothes - I really don’t!) on the other side. What it really boiled down to was — did we have the faith and guts to proclaim to everyone around us that we were going to live for God’s approval and praise or were we going to wimp out and go for man’s applause and praise? That was the question. That was the challenge. (John 12:42-43}
All that to say that Bill’s message was not what made it my “some day.” With the scales heavily tipped toward people getting baptized he opened the way for anyone to get baptized and he threw in the towel … I mean … he threw a towel in. Anyone who had the courage to get baptized, that is to proclaim, profess and live their faith out loud in front of man could come to the front and get a towel and be baptized in the lake that day. They started to sing a song, and the couple in front of me looked at each other and left. My heart sank a bit. I thought they were high tailin’ it out of the service, but at the top of the steps they both stopped, took towels and returned to their seats in front of me. I was trembling a bit inside. But that wasn’t what made this Sunday my “some day.”
Many, many people went forward and got towels. Bill then told us a story of what happened in the Saturday evening service. He felt in his spirit that a few folk needed a minute or two more to work up the guts to come and get baptized. So they sang another chorus of the song, but no one came. Bill thought the prompt must have been just in his mind, but with about 10 seconds left in the song an Asian couple came rushing down the aisle. Applause spontaneously erupted from the congregation. My heart soared just hearing this.
Of course, Bill ordered another chorus and verse to be sung and several more moved toward the towels and the applause of men and angels roared and my heart soared even higher, but even this was not what made this my “some day.”
The last chorus and the last towel were sung out and handed out. I smiled at the couple in front of me and turned to leave. There stood my 16 year old son, Grant who was suppose to be in Impact. My heart started beating really, really fast. “Dad, I’m either dying or I need to get baptized!”
We grabbed a towel, went down into the lake, and when he came up out of the lake I knew deep in my heart this was “some day!”
There is a line in Groundhog’s Day where Andie McDowell after discovering that Bill Murray is living the same day over and over asks him, what he is doing with this gift of eternity? It is the turning point for Bill.
If someone asks me what I’m doing with my gift of eternity I’ll simply say, “I’m living it out loud with my son.”
