Five years of prayers answered

With an overloaded and overwhelming schedule, I had seriously skimped on sleep to get "stuff done" for four days in a row until my cognitive abilities were suffering. Yet, on May 9, despite being faithless in the wise stewardship of my body and despite being completely out of it mentally and emotionally as a result, God not only kept my kids and me safe on the roads as I drove.  In addition, He delivered an answer to a prayer request I've had on my heart for five years (especially recently as I have shared it with others) regarding a deep desire within in for our son to decide on his own to be baptized in obedience and as a testimony to others of God's redemptive work in his life.  He's shy, however, and did not want to stand up in front of the entire church to give his testimony, so bashfulness had held him back from being obedient, and I wasn't about to push him.

Since I was so tired, I decided to play a book on tape while I drove to keep me alert.  I've fallen asleep at the wheel before, so I'll do most anything to make sure I am alert driving when my kids are in the car especially. The only CD  I had with me was a Christian novel written for adults.  While the themes are Christian, I try to avoid adult themes when little ones are in the car, but desperate times call for desperate measures, so I played it.

Marcus Dillinger, the hero of the story, an MVP pro baseball player and pitcher for the World Series winning Dodgers, accepted Christ as Lord and Savior during the portion of the story my son heard. Then he immediately chose to be baptized, and the story explains why that is so important.

At this point in the story, I had just pulled into our garage and was ready to exit the van when my son asked to keep listening.  So we sat in the van listening until the baptism was complete. I prayed and cried a little as he listened.  Then he told me he wanted to get baptized at the lake at a camp with our church family.  

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39)

He met with the children's ministry director at Starbuck's a few weeks later, and even though it had been five years since he accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, he told her every little detail of his salvation story (even telling her how the conversation started when I was sneaking ground flax into his cereal as I did every morning because I was a health nut back then).  He is now on the church schedule to be baptized.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  (Romans 10:9)

It floors me how just after I had shared my desire for him to be baptized with others (but not with him as it needs be his choice) and despite my own sinful neglect of my body by repeatedly prioritizing my to-do list over sleep, God worked the consequences of my sin together for good (Romans 8:28).  Through my sleepiness, my son heard the CD that would prompt his decision to be baptized. Only God can do that! 

Who of us would still be alive today and in a relationship with Him were it not for the countless incidents of his mercy and grace all around us, mostly unrecognized? He loves so much despite ourselves.

"If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself." (2 Timothy 2:13)