My son and I were together last Saturday. And we weren’t talking about anything in particular when he asked me: how could you have made the decision to be baptized when you were so young?

I admitted that I had to stop and search my intellectual hard drive to find an answer to that question. Kids ask the darnedest questions…

So while I was “loading,” he said: I can understand how at the time of the apostles, being baptized was a big deal.  If they got baptized and everyone knew they were followers of Christ, they could lose their lives.  There’s no danger of losing your life anymore, why is it necessary to come out and declare that you are a follower of Christ?

Hmmmm….that got my processor whirring.  Why was I so adamant in my decision to be baptized when I was just nine? Here’s what I said:

I was 5 years old when Martial Law was declared. Our house was on the second floor and we had a bay window that faced out onto Shaw Boulevard.  I could see the red flags of the demonstrators as they marched. I saw my Dad come home bloody after his shift at the police station.  It was a time of conflict.
After Martial Law was declared, life went on.  It was more boring because there were no more rallies, no more marches to watch from the window. We all had to plant a small garden and keep our front clean.  We had to be home before the curfew and my Dad had to walk home sometimes because the mobile unit was out of fuel: fuel was rationed. On TV, there were endless talk shows: Pulung-pulong Sa Kaunlaran.  My favorite cartoons were always disrupted by a press conference from Malacanang. Sesame Street was the only refuge.
In 1976, the oil crisis was in full swing. There was conflict in the Middle East. Almost every Sunday, there would be a preaching on the coming fulfillment of the events in the Revelation.

In hushed tones, we would hear the older members of the congregation talk about pastors in the provinces who were being approached by the NPA and told not to preach the gospel anymore on pain of death;
The big question for me in those days was: where did my loyalties lie?

Even in school. our Bible teachers always hammered on being true to Jesus Christ. If called upon to choose, would I choose Jesus Christ even if it meant suffering pain?  I didn’t trust myself to know what to do when the time came. I feared that I might not be strong enough to do the right thing. So I told myself I had to decide now so that if and when that time came, the decision would have been made up and all I needed to do was to stand my ground.

What if it didn’t happen? What if I am never called upon to stand up for Christ? Wouldn’t I have wasted my life? How can I waste my life pleasing Christ? Loyalty to Christ had eternal reward!  So I really didn’t stand to lose anything by being baptized. What”s more, I would be true to how I really felt: I felt that Christ owned my life.  That’s why I decided to be baptized.

After I finished telling my son that, we spent the rest of the afternoon in silence. Both of us were too busy with our own thoughts….I was busy remembering; he was busy digesting and processing all that I had just said.