Writing about a spiritual experience

Sometimes we think we can't write about our spiritual experiences because we don't sound like preachers. But the most powerful accounts can be written by simply telling of a time when God met your needs in a special way. Here is an excerpt from a larger piece I'm working on that shares an experience that I had.

Immediately after my salvation, when I told my Sunday school teacher, she told me I needed to be baptized. However, I was terrified of water. I couldn’t put my head under in the swimming pool without panicking. It was all I could do to wash my hair in the shower. I went to Pastor Richard Jackson and told him, “I can’t be baptized.”

“What do you mean you can’t be baptized? The Lord commands you to be baptized.”

“Yeah, but I’m afraid of water.”

“I won’t drop you.”

“You don’t understand,” I argued. “I couldn’t lie in the bathtub and put my head under the water. I can’t do it; it’s not going to happen.”

Pastor Jackson looked me right in the eye. “If you’re saved, God’s first command is to be baptized. You have to be baptized because Jesus told you to, and you’re just going to pray and let Jesus take care of it. You can’t start your Christian walk by refusing to obey the first command.”

So I thought, Okay, if I have to, I guess I will. “But I want you to know, Brother Jackson, that I’m probably going to come up out of the water screaming, and it’s going to be real embarrassing.”

He smiled reassuringly. “If you come up screaming, that’s okay. We’ll have one of the deacons help you out of the baptistery.”

I prayed about it, and I decided if that’s what Jesus wanted me to do, I was going through with it. If I embarrassed myself in front of the whole world, it would be okay. I was going to do it because Jesus said.

Sunday morning, I went down the steps into the water. On the second step, suddenly I wasn’t afraid anymore. I put my hands on my chest just like the pastor told me to, and he dipped me back in the water, and all I felt was peace. He lifted me out of the water, and all I felt was peace—and then incredible joy.

I know God intervened. When life gets tough—financially, emotionally or physically—instead of looking at the problem, I can look at those points in my life where I know, I know, I know God met me. He did beyond what I had any right to expect Him to do.

Every one of you has something unique that God has done for you that He hasn’t done for me. He’s done something special for you because you’re special to Him. Praise God! Try writing about it.