Then I remembered the subject for this column — living out our baptismal vows — and realized I was being handed an opportunity to practice my own. "Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?" Being civil to the airline employee who was trying to solve my problem was a way of renouncing the sin of treating others as if they were of no consequence to me or to God. The weather was hardly her fault. And so I took a deep breath and tried to respond courteously to her efforts to help. There were plenty of other angry passengers in line, and with her day starting like this she was in for a long one. Maybe I could be a brief respite for her.

But I confess: When I hear those baptismal vows I am overwhelmed. I often wonder how any of us can say "yes" to them. "Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?" "Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?" This, along with renouncing the sins that draw us away from God, is major stuff. How can we possibly fulfill the promises we’re making?

Yet opportunities to live out our baptismal vows abound. The first step toward living them is recognizing how often we get a chance to do just that. Leaving the office on time rather than working another 12-hour day is a way of renouncing the devil’s temptation to consider ourselves indispensable or to put work before family, rest, community, and prayer. Gathering for worship with our families and close friends or feeding others in the local soup kitchen can be ways of renouncing the powers of this world that rebel against God. Refusing to judge someone else or to pass along a juicy tidbit of gossip helps fulfill the promise to renounce the sins that draw us away from God. Yes, those baptismal vows are big, even scary, but there are hundreds of simple ways to live them out in daily life.

So let me invite you to look at those baptismal promises afresh. Write them on a piece of paper and start listing ways you can act on them. Keep adding to those lists as ideas come to you. Focus not only on what you can do, but what you already have done by looking at those vows each evening and making notes about the things you did or said during the past day that fulfilled one or more of the baptismal promises. You may discover, as I did, that keeping them is as simple — and as difficult — as not yelling at an airline employee on a stormy morning.

Debra K. Farrington is a retreat leader and has written eight books of Christian spirituality. Her Web site is www.debrafarrington.com

This article is published in the July/Aug 2008 issue of Lutheran Woman Today.