The Rise and Fall of Mike

It was early on in our recovery journey as a community where our fantasies turned to dust. Or at least mind did. I was baptizing this guy named Mike. He had been with us awhile, coming in early each Sunday morning to angrily set up chairs. Then he's sit in one and glare at the practicing musicians. He wasn't a fan of the music, he wanted to get to the meeting part of Sunday. Eventually he decided that he wanted to get baptized.

This took awhile to figure out. Our pilot project start up had not considered that anyone would show up and attend it, much less stick around long enough to ask to be baptized. We figured it out. I cannot remember now if he was in the first group of people who were baptized in the borrowed baptismal font in the sanctuary of our home church or if his was later, in the river. But what I do remember is what happened as he rose out of the water and slicked his hair out of his eyes.

"I can feel it. This is what I needed. This is the thing that is going to change everything for me." He declared this with conviction and shivers ran up my spine.

Look, I love miracles. I believe in miracles. I am scared to death of presumption and magical thinking. I've lost track of the timeline but I do not think he survived the year. The disease took him and I do not think this is at all what he had in mind when he rose up from those waters, cleansed and renewed, my brother in Christ.

Paul says something like this in Romans 6:3, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Yes. Yes. I know this. But I forget.

Jesus lived without illusion. This is our work too.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

Romans 6:4

Mike rose out of those waters and into a new life. It turned out it was not quite what he hoped for but it pleased God to give it to him anyway. I was hoping for longer for Mike - a miracle. I'm learning that faith does not guarantee miracles for us to have a renewed life but it will ask us to live without illusion and no small measure of courage.