There is no try.

Do you remember that book 'the secret?'  I remember hearing about it, but I didn't read it.  I only read the Bible anyway, not other books.  But regardless of that, 'the secret' essentially claimed that the power of achieving what you want is within you all along.  Wish it, want it, do it, that sort of thing.

Now, I'm not going to suggest that the solution to your problems is as simple as just thinking positively, but it is true at least that setting ourselves up for failure is a real thing that we do.  You don't succeed by thinking positively, but by presenting yourself negatively, you're almost guaranteeing yourself failure.  If you present your product by telling the person you're trying to sell it to that they don't want it, then they probably won't.  It's like selling yourself to a potential date.  If you start out by saying 'you probably won't want to go on a date, but in case you've gone crazy or have no other options, would you like to go out to a movie sometime, then ain't nobody going to want to go to that movie with you.

But we're bad for this.  We have a way of sabotaging our own happiness.  We have a way of desiring our own sadness, of authoring our own destruction.  People want to do certain things, they want to accomplish stuff, and yet at the same time, they seek to break their objective down.  This is a hard thing to hear, a difficult thing to go through, to realize that in many cases your own worst enemy is you.  When the question comes up 'what is to prevent me?' the answer is usually a bunch of stuff that
we bring up ourselves, which may or may not apply.  But we insist on following through with it anyway.  We tend to want to make sure that none of the stuff we want actually happens.  We stop it before it starts.  Call it good old fashioned self-destructive behavior.

Now, this carries over to all sorts of things, not just to baptism of other individuals.  Think about the message given to us from 1st John, where it tells us to love one another.  Great idea, right? It's a great idea that everyone is in favor of.  Everyone agrees with this as a principle, that we should love one another, and be good to one another, so the big question on everyone's mind is simply, 'why is that not happening?'  If absolutely everyone on earth believes that we should love one another, then what's stopping us?  Well, we are.  We stop us.  We put up barriers to make sure that won't happen.  We know we should love other people, that we ought to be kind and good and serve each other, but we go to a lot of effort to ensure that we block that out.  That will lead us to sadness, which we tend to feel is well deserved.

But here's the juice.  We are responsible for what we do, and the outcomes that result from that, they're our issue as well.  These problems, these issues we encounter, they're typically our own doing, really.  You know that part in 1st John where it tells us to love one another?  Well, that part isn't just in there for filler, and it's not easy enough for us to look at and claim that we were powerless to do anything about.  Why don't we love our brothers?  Honestly, because usually we don't feel like it.  We're not held captive in some machine forcing our decisions, usually we'd just rather not do what the scriptures tell us to do.  Why not?  Do we disagree with the Bible's insistence that we love one another?  Of course we don't.  Everyone, great to small, universally believes that we ought to be good to one another.  Everyone believes that we should love one another, that we should be kind and generous.  The people you conflict with on a daily basis believe this.  The rude teenagers who take your seat on the bus believe this.  ISIS believes this.  So, you know, why isn't it happeneing?

Simple question, simple answer.  This isn't happening because we get going on the wrong foot.  We start off in the wrong direction, then it's really tough to get going in the right direction again.  Almost impossible.  We start out believing that we should love other people, and so we shoulder that.  We bear that responsibility on our shoulders, and carry it forward.  And in carrying it forward, we realize that the people we are called to love, family and friends, neighbors and co-workers, the people who live in the apartment above or below us, the people who cut us off in traffic, the surly salespeople or distracted waitresses, they're all so desperately unlovable.  They have almost no redeeming features.  So when we read in the scriptures that we need to love each other, because if we don't love, yet claim to love God we are liars, it bothers us to our core.  It bothers us so much that we have to come up with excuses as to why it doesn't apply in this particular case.

Tough luck. It does.  It applies to everyone.  And you may complain and insist that these people are so awful that it ought not to apply.  It's not fair to expect you to love them, to be good and kind to them if they're so dreadful.  Well, that's where the foundational thinking comes in. We love, say the sciptures, because he first loved us, and gave himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  What does this mean?  It means that he laid down his life for us, the godly for the ungodly, the righteous for the
unrighteous.  I know the Bible likes to hammer away at you for being a sinner, but in this case, you really, desperately need it to.  You need it to, because it's the only thing that lets the rest of this make any sense.  You need to know who you are before you can possibly hope to move that to someone else.  What do I mean?  I mean that we're all the heroes of our own narratives.  We all believe that we're in charge of our own destinies, that we are the central focus of the story, and the goodness and badness of everyone else is in relation to us.  But it isn't.  None of us are that great.  None of us are fantastic.  The Bible tells us that there is no one righteous, not even one, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We all have problems, and we all have people who find us to be desperately difficult to love.  We are all people who have those around us who would make excuses as to why Jesus would admit that we are the ones who are beyond loving!

In other words, we have to know about Christ's love for us.  While we were still sinners, while we were enemies of God, not neutral, not friends, but enemies of God, that's when Christ died for us.  He died for you not because you were so easy to love, but because you were so hard to love.  He died for you not because you had done a great job,  but because you were so dreadful.  Once you begin to realize that the stuff from the Bible actually applies to you, that you're not a beautiful, unique snowflake to whom the rules do not apply, then it actually makes it easier for you to love your neighbor.  Why?

Because you know you're no better than they are.

They're the heroes of their own stories, too.  They see themselves as the examples for everyone to follow.  And everyone, from the biggest to the smallest, genuinely believes that they are in great shape, and everyone ought to be like them.  Think of it in Star Wars terms for a minute - does it not seem strange to you that people would willingly join the Dark Side?  That they'd join the evil galactic empire?  Well, it's a matter of understanding that the people who are in the empire believe that they're fighting for goodness and justice, that they would sincerely belive that the rebels are evil, which seems insane to say, but there we are.  The forces of darkness don't see themselves as the forces of darkness, no matter how many skulls you pin to their uniforms.  When you disagree with them, they're not at home wondering how they can be more like you, but how you can be more like them!  In other words, to repeat the words of the Bible one more time, we love because he loved us.  In this is love, that Jesus died for us, to forgive us our sins.  This is what the Bible is essentially all about.  If you don't start from this position, love for each other becomes very difficult, if possible at all. But if you do, then all of a sudden, the people around you actually become loveable.  They do so not because they all of a sudden become better, but because of your perspective.  Why do they deserve love?  They don't!  And nor do you!  There's nothing that we do that makes us worthy of God's time or attention.  But if you work out that you are loved in spite of your sins and not because of them, then the love for everyone else becomes easier.

As usual, it's a matter of perspective.  Everything from a certain point of view.