Baptism.

by DJ Schofield | Last Updated:March 25, 2016

If you were to ask me at any point of the first 20 years of my life, “do you think you will ever get Baptized?” The answer would have been “no.” I probably wouldn’t have needed a second to think about it. Honestly, I didn’t technically even know what Baptism was or what it symbolized until about a year and a half ago.

Life was all about money, girls, and parties.  I mean what else do ya need in life, am I right? Wrong. The problem was my perceived success that showed on the outside… I was successful in sports (particularly baseball), successful with my landscaping company, successful in school (when I tried), successful with girls, etc.

My “internal success” (idk if that’s a thing but bare with me), was a completely different story. What I never realized was my true purpose. There was never a core purpose behind anything I did outside of self idolization. Nearly everything I did was for myself or to make myself appear a certain way. This caused me to crave attention. Whether it was being the class clown or the life of the party I needed attention.

The problem was I was never satisfied. I would do anything I could in class to get a laugh from people… with no regards of others feelings. I was essentially a bully that I thought everyone liked because I was “funny.”

At parties I was never satisfied… everything from drinking too much to disrespecting women. I did everything I could to gain the image of being “cool.”

Life was great (or so I thought!) I had a bunch of “friends”, some money, and not many worries in the world. But, I soon realized that the party life was similar to the movie “Groundhog’s Day.” The same thing happens every weekend, with the same people, usually at the same place. You would think after awhile it would dawn on me that what I was doing was so meaningless.

It wasn’t until the day I decided to ask my employee, Josh, why he brought a bible to work nearly everyday that my eyes opened. I asked him why he brought it everyday and read it? I will never forget his response… “because it’s the truth.” Like BOOM, could there be a better answer? Heck no!

That got me thinking… I wanted to know the “truth.” What was the truth? How do you know it’s the truth?

A few days later, one of my friends invited me to Midtown. I figured I would go because I could use some good influence in my life. And man, let me tell ya… I’ve never met a community of people so opened minded, friendly, and judge-less.

I walked in and everyone treated me as if I went there my entire life. I was actually kind of thrown off because I had never really met strangers that sincerely cared about me like that. After leaving that first service I began investigating. I’m a heavy reader so I began reading almost anything I could about Christianity.

Soon after, I got my first Bible. It was the first time I had ever read it. When I say I knew nothing, I mean I knew absolutely nothing about the Bible. I quickly began reading it and soon found that I was completely lost. I became discouraged because I felt like most people already knew and understood the Bible so I would look like an idiot asking basic questions. Wrong.

I began asking questions and reading through the Bible with some people from Midtown. I quickly learned that having someone there to explain what was going on while reading was so helpful. Oh, and not a single person I asked questions to looked down on me or criticized me. It seemed like everyone was so eager to help.

As my understanding of the Bible grew I decided that, without a doubt, there was a God that loved me, no matter what my past looked like. It was humbling to know that Jesus gave his life so I could have a life. This is when I started to see a meaningful purpose appear into my life. I was no longer living for my self. Everything I did, I did it for Jesus.

I decided over the 2015 spring break that I would go on the Midtown trip to Chicago. Man was that a great decision! Going into this trip my faith was as strong as ever. I met great people that advanced my pursuit of Jesus.

For the first time in my life I gave my testimony. It’s crazy to actually sit down and listen to peoples’ stories and to tell your own. It makes you feel like you’ve know the person your entire life. It’s also so awesome to hear how Jesus came into peoples’ lives.

After that trip, I was on a “Jesus High.” If that’s what you call it…lol. I was free from partying and disrespecting women for almost a year. I spent all of my time learning about Jesus and working out… #gainz (you didn’t think I could actually write all of this without saying it did you?)

Ahhh, then I slowly started to lose sight of God. I gradually slipped back into partying. Nowhere near as bad as before but it was still back to living for myself. I surrounded myself with the wrong people which lead to bad decisions. I slowly saw myself falling back into the lifestyle that I knew for 20 years.

After a few months of going back to my old ways I woke up on the floor after a long night of “throwin down.” Definitely drank a few too many. I remember laying there with the worst hangover ever and my first thought was to pray (why, I have no idea.) I literally just cried out for God, asking him to do anything to point me back into the direction of him.

Since that day, a little over three months now, I’ve directed my entire life back to Jesus. I have been able to fight off temptations, even when sometimes it is very difficult.

Just a couple weeks ago I decided to, again, go on the spring break trip with Midtown. This year the destination was Boston. Wow, it was awesome. My group was full of great people that, once again, encouraged me and helped with my pursuit of Jesus. There stories were all amazing and it was awesome to see how Jesus was working in each of their lives. They even encouraged me to get Baptized on Easter. I was like wuuuh? me? Baptized? Am I even allowed to do that?

That really got me thinking about getting Baptized. After the trip, I met with my group’s driver, Chris (Aka “Dad”), and we spoke about how I don’t need to be “perfect” to get Baptized. If I waited until I were perfect I would never get Baptized. He told me that if I could, without a doubt, say that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and I trust in him no matter what, there is no reason I shouldn’t get Baptized.

With the little knowledge I have, I completely agreed with him. We will never be perfect and will always have sin. But, that is no reason not to get Baptized since I trust in Jesus whole-heartedly. I think it is a perfect time in my life to publicly proclaim my love for Jesus.

Josh and Chris will be the two people Baptizing me this Sunday. I cannot thank them enough for all their selfless mentoring and encouragement in my journey of pursuing Jesus. They are two great dudes that know what it means to be Godly men. I look up to each of you as brothers in Christ.

Words really can’t describe how excited I am to publicly cleanse my sin and be born again. It is such a humbling feeling to know that my past will be dead and I will be born again to walk the rest of my life with Jesus Christ.

P.S. Thank you everyone that has helped in my pursuit to walk with Jesus. I love you all so much.

P.P.S. Midtown, 1800 Blanding St. Columbia, SC 5:00 PM EST. BE THERE!