by: Wayne White

“Casual agnostics” would be the way I remember my parents growing up. We did not go to church, matters of faith were not important or discussed, so baptism was something that never took place. My search for faith was a strange process. I knew I wanted a connection to God, but did not know the path. So I looked into Judaism, Buddhism, and Catholicism, all the while feeling this pull towards God. I was married in the Catholic Church, attended Mass and raised our daughter in that tradition, but as the pain of divorce and remarriage became a part of my journey, and I experienced the requirements of more and more religious hoops to jump through I knew that God couldn’t have made it this difficult to be in relationship with him. About this time my dad had a spiritual awakening that propelled him to be an active participant in his Methodist church. He later moved to Houston to be with us and started attending St. Luke’s because it was Methodist, close to our home, and he had a good experience in the denomination and trusted it. I started to attend with him and the longer I went, the more connected I felt, and the more urgent the tug was on my heart. My wife started to come as well. We recently even joined a LIFT group. I have always loved theater and acting, and when Sid Davis contacted me about the play “Life with Father” I knew I wanted to play a part. The illtempered father in the play desires things his way and stubbornly resists the insistence of his family to be baptized. As I observed the passage of this recalcitrant, stiff-necked character, I felt the growing need to submit myself to the importance of being baptized. I want to be connected to God and thereby to my wife, my family and my church. On Sunday, Nov. 13 at the 11 AM service that is just what I did. I got on my knees, bowed my head and received the sacrament of baptism. I then stood up and joined St. Luke’s.