Last night I became a godfather to Isaac Garrick Rabarts, son of my friends Dan and Chrissy. It was a real honour. I share godparent duties with Ian and Alana, so it’s a three-way split for being mindful of Isaac’s spiritual wellbeing.
\nI had to think a bit before I said yes to the invitation. A godfather has a specific responsibility to be a leader for the child in terms of God and Christianity, and I don’t take such a responsibility lightly. But I’m not exactly an active churchgoer at the moment. In fact, I suspect the category under which I best fit right now is ‘agnostic’.
\nHowever, and this is crucial, when I went through the long journey of self that led me to where I now am, I never turned away from faith. It receded from me, but perhaps I never entirely lost touch with it. I never misplaced my affection for the community of which my family was part, and in which I served for many years. To the contrary, I cherish my experiences, and value the formative role they played in my life. And so, after this reflection, I decided that yes, I could be a good and honest and genuine godfather, because in some way that I can’t quite put into words I am still part of that community; and while I am turned towards different questions now, I have not forgotten what came before.
\nSo, once I settled in myself that I could take on this role with authenticity, I accepted Dan and Chrissy’s invitation; and I can tell you that it was a rare and special honour to be present for Isaac’s baptism and to be there as he was welcomed into that wonderful and supportive community. I look forward to his future!
\nI must note, however, that there are some things about being a godfather that I haven’t yet figured out. For example, I’m not sure when I start worrying about putting horses heads in people’s beds, etc. I was advised today that this generally waits at least until the child can talk, so I have a bit of time to study up. Just as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night I became a godfather to Isaac Garrick Rabarts, son of my friends Dan and Chrissy. It was a real honour. I share godparent duties with Ian and Alana, so it’s a three-way split for being mindful of Isaac’s spiritual wellbeing. I had to think a bit before I said yes to the invitation. … Continue reading My Godson Isaac<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8D9ZE-8T","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}