From the outside Bradley* is one of the most willfully obtuse students City Life has the honor of serving. He just transplanted to Greensboro from Eastern, NC. He frequently gets in trouble a lot at school and doesn’t mind proving anything to anyone. If I were a licensed therapist I might conclude that he uses this willful obtuseness as a barrier or boundary. Boundaries are difficult for teens to establish and figure out, honestly, they’re difficult for most of us to figure out. I’ve been on the front end of trying to sift through what Bradley* wants me to see, what I sometimes mistakenly intuit on my own and what the Holy Spirit wants to show me about him and what I’m to learn through doing life with him. Bradley* rarely says ‘I feel this way’ and often you have to read between the lines. I was further surprised when Bradley paused the music he was playing, quite loudly, might I add, to ask:
‘Aye, Tra, if i wanna get baptized, how does that work?’
I could barely provide a decent answer because I was so taken off guard. Bradley* is what a lot of us would consider a “Nominal Christian”, and has fruit that can be easily overlooked because it doesn’t stand out amongst the rest of the foliage on his proverbial tree. For him to be thinking about baptism with no prompting or discussion is powerful evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in his life and I am very excited to see him make a public declaration of his belief in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior!
