"Witness................."

”There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then one of them looks over at the other and says, "What the heck is water?" - David Foster Wallace

One of the points my pastor brought forth yesterday was an acknowledgment of there being three different baptisms addressed in Scripture. The first two should occur in an assigned sequence, our immersion into Christ preceding any form of water ritual, the latter merely a statement made that speaks of the other having already been achieved. While the initial event, however, is orchestrated by the Spirit, bringing us into union with the other two Trinity members, the third dunking is the other way around, the Godhead putting us under in the Holy Ghost. My own initial experience, not required to be duplicated in its entirety, took me into the depths of worship, my spirit leaving my body to hover over it as a river flowed up out of an inner well. Any “osmosis” since has likewise been temporary in its possession, but otherwise only ankle-deep, waist-deep, chin-deep, not over- my- head deep. Knowing Him, therefore, is a reality, but one wherein our relationship has been sustained by what I refer to as an “anchor-line” that teaches me as I go, a “parental umbilical cord” that feeds me in the journey. The other night, for example, a gentle voice in my head awakened me about three in the morning, not threatening, but giving direction concerning correction needed in my life. Then, a day or so later, while accomplishing my three-mile orbit of the soccer field, in conversation with Him and inattentive of all else around me, my plea became “Lovest Thou me?”; and immediately, whether just that portion of John’s gospel stuck in my head or the actual whisper of God unto me, came the reply “Feed my sheep”. What that might mean is a bit beyond me, the old man turning seventy-three this year and pretty sure that climbing into a church pulpit isn’t in his future somewhere down the road. Seems to me, if anything, it’s more like letting me know my vessel is serving its purpose just as it is, handing Him my reins in the next step, wherever that takes me……