Instant or Lifetime?

I've mentioned before, in a post, that I don't remember a time when I wasn't aware of God. I grew up in a house that believed in God. I've never had a dramatic "conversion" event -- "unsaved" one moment and then "saved" the next. I am constantly being recreated by God, and sometimes He has to go back and repeat work He's already done, but hopefully, generally, He's moving me in the right direction.

I've been on two Emmaus walks, and on each one, someone -- someone kind of like me -- has expressed regret that she hasn't experienced a dramatic moment of salvation. I guess I don't understand that. Why would I choose to live a life far away from God that is dramatically altered over a life lived in the knowledge of God that continually moves closer? Do we have a need to be able to point to an exact moment -- "Here is where I was saved?"

Two posts by Jay Voorhees of Only Wonder Understands (Salvation I and Salvation II) brought this issue back to my mind.

I talked about baptism before; I believe that it is an act of God -- the ordinary (meaning usual, not unextraordinary) means of initiation into the Body of Christ. Baptism is a one time event; transformation is not. My boys were baptized as very young children. I was asked a month or so ago if I thought they they would need to be "rebaptized" as adults. When I told the questioner "no," my answer was met with disbelief -- don't they need to commit themselves to to God as the result of a personal decision?

I think my answer to that question is two-fold. First of all, if baptism is the initiation of God's child into the Body of Christ, then God does it -- he "did" it right the first time, and it doesn't need to be done again. Secondly, I do think that they (my children) will need to commit themselves to God -- and I pray that they will do it over and over and over again. A life commitment -- metanoia -- change -- transformation.

The worry that I have concerning the concept of one-time salvation is that we might accept that idea that after one person is "saved," that we are finished "making a disciple, and we move on to the next person to ensure his salvation while ignoring the nurturing of the first person.

I certainly don't mean to discount the idea of a flashing, blinding, experience of change. God is God, and he will do as he will do. I just believe that one of the ways that he brings us into relationship with him is through continual transformation, and that we may not be able to pinpoint one moment of change. The lack of an event or specific time point of salvation should not devalue the work of God in anyone's life.

Images: Both of these photos are from a district of Libson called Baixa. Notice the sidewalks in the first picture. These cobblestones were common on every street and every sidewalk of the city. The patterns of light and dark were beautiful, and were found everywhere. I would say that the stones were one of the hallmarks of the city, along with tilework. There was tile EVERYWHERE -- ever covering the entire fronts of buildings. This part of Baixa was full of shops -- locally owned shops that were wonderful to explore. Right at the top of the hill in the first picture is an very old castle. Remember that I said at one point that Lisbon was built on hills? If you look in the second picture, right in the middle, you'll see an object that looks like a metal tower. That's an elevator. It was how people were transported from one level of the city to another.