Eight Weeks

Well it’s been eight weeks since I was baptized at First Baptist North Spartanburg. I was baptized when I was a young boy, but looking back on it I believe I just went swimming. My life never changed and really my life started going down hill with sin. Anyway, I will leave my testimony for another day, but I wanted to tell everyone something someone said to me right before I was baptized.

While I was waiting for the service to start I met a gentleman who was a pastor at another church. I don’t remember his name, but he was there to baptize his grandchild. We were talking briefly before the service started and I was telling him my story about why I was getting dunked again. He said these words to me right before I went down in the water, “Get ready for Satan to get after you”. Well I just politely said I would and then I never saw him again.

Right after I was baptized I got sick with a sinus-head cold. I don’t know if it was allergies or a cold, but it finally got me so down so I had to call the doctor. The doctor called me in an antibiotic which moved everything from my head to my chest, and then I started coughing like crazy. The coughing and chest problems continued until I finally called the doctor back. I then received a steroid shot for allergies which seemed to help some. As of today’s date I still have a small cough and have started getting canker sores in my mouth.

Now I have never had issues before with allergies and although I do sometimes get canker sores in my mouth, I never have had more than about two at a time. I have to be honest it’s been one of the most difficult summers I can remember, except when my father was killed in 1996.

Are the problems I have been experiencing for the last eight weeks related to my baptism? I don’t know, but I do know I’m ready to start feeling better. If my problems are related to my baptism, then I feel honored to be able to suffer because of the one who should not have had to suffer, Christ. I have confidence that God is in control and when it’s time I will be whole again.