SHOWER OR BATH? FULL IMMERSION OR SPRINKLED? VOLITION OR TRADITION?

I've heard various opinions expressed on which makes one cleaner--a shower or bath. When you shower, all the dirt gets washed down the drain, the shower practioners claim. But when you dry, the rest of the dirt from the bath that didn't go down the drain gets buffed off and you've enjoyed the luxury of lying down while getting clean. While Janet Leigh certainly made the wrong choice in Psycho, we'll just call it a draw between baths or showers.

What about baptisms? My wife and I have both had two. So we must be really spiritually clean, huh? We were both baptized at Logan Street, though not at the same time. But her first one was cool, and my last one was. What? The ones at Logan Street weren't? Well, mine was, but CQ's wasn't. Let me 'splain.

CQ was baptized in a Free Will Baptist Church at age 9. They had the baptisms at Injun' Creek nearby. Now how cool is it to be baptized at Injun' Creek? Had I know of its existence, I would have wanted my first one there. At an earlier age, too. My second one was in the Jordan River. Again, how cool is that? I have a video of it, too, along with the 8 others who were re-baptized with me on a recent trip to Israel. It was simply amazing!

Now, how about the other two. As I said, my wife was coerced into getting baptized again as a Southern Baptist. No longer a Southern Baptist practice, at the time the pastor encouraged her after we were married. Certainly we were going to go to Logan Street together, so back then you couldn't join the church by letter unless it was from one Southern Baptist to another. It was highly legalistic, and it seemed to invalidate her earlier baptism. She wouldn't do it again under those circumstances, and neither would I. We woud leave that church first. That practice has been eliminated now and for good reason.

But what about sprinkling as some churches do? As a lifelong Baptist, I don't understand it. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Some have wondered why, since He had no sin to be cleansed from. Matthew 2:15 tells us it was "to fulfill all righteousness". It was so Jesus could experience fully humanity. And it pleased the Father. (Matt 2:17)

So if Jesus was fully submerged and He was following the practice of John the Baptist who was called to preceed Jesus, and we are following Jesus, then as I said, I don't understand sprinkling. But I'm not about to judge the act. There's much about scripture and religion that I don't and never will know. I'll just defer to Deut 29:29 and accept that I'll find out in eternity, but for now, that's all I'm getting in the informational (and perhaps doctrinal) category.

To me, the most important thing is salvation and a personal relationship with Jesus. When one elects to follow Him in baptism, then that's excellent. Sprinkled or immersed? Bath or shower? We have our preferences. And we've rid ourselves of our uncleanliness. That should be all that matters.