Born Again (Day 8 of Lent)

We've probably all heard someone tell us that "you have to be born again."  I remember when I got born again.  I was a kid sitting in Vacation Bible School staring at the front of the auditorium as Dr. Redman drew a baseball field on a dry erase board.  He said, "these are the four bases you have to get through to get saved."  First base represented acknowledging that I was a sinner.  Second base symbolized inviting Jesus into my heart.  Third base meant being made right with God.  And for those fortunate enough to squeeze home, heaven was waiting.  Undoubtedly, I knew that I wanted to get to fourth base, so I shyly walked up to the pastor to tell him.  I went into a hallway where another pastor was waiting to pray me in.  I was born again, but . . .

Then there's this thing called life that the baseball analogy didn't quite help me with.  Running bases to heaven and hearing a cool analogy and praying a prayer sure didn't make me feel like I was on my way to heaven, much less living some sort of life that meant anything more significant than all the other lives around me.

I believe Jesus proposes being "born again" much simpler than what was drawn on the dry erase board that day.  He relates it to a new-born baby.  We can look at and touch a baby.  We can smell them.  But what we can't see is the person who takes shape within.  What takes shape within is something we can't see and touch - what Jesus call the living spirit, or, the spirit of God.  What Jesus is proposing is that none of us are without the spirit of God, and it's the same spirit we find in the poetry of Genesis that "hovers over the water."  

The spirit of life is in all of us, and Jesus tell us that unless we submit to that spirit, it's not possible to enter the kingdom of God - to be born again.  Submit means simply "to yield power to."  

Have you ever known that you were really good at something or really enjoyed doing something, but people kept telling you that you needed to do something else?  "You need to get a job, you need to go to school, you need to get a real job."  If there's one wall separating us from submitting to the spirit of life within us, it's fear.  We have this gut feeling, this voice deep within.  It defines our passions and our desires.  But so often, we get afraid of following the voice, because with it may come rejection, condescension and doubt.  Have you ever had an idea that was so clear that you couldn't keep it to yourself?  And then, when you told somebody, they talked it down as if it were nothing significant?  

To be born again simply means to listen to the spirit within and follow directions.  The image of God is pressed deep within our beings, and it comes in the form of the human spirit.  So often, we talk about "not finding our purpose" or "not knowing what we want to do with our lives."  I think we know though.  I think there's been a voice the whole time whispering, inviting us to follow it into the uncertain desires and passions that we know we have.  

I love to write, and this Lent I am practicing.  Instead of putting that voice aside that reminds me of what I'm passionate about, I'm trying to listen to it and let it take me to places I've never been to before. For years though, this wasn't the case.  I was afraid of the voice.  I thought, "If I really aspire to be a writer, my life's not gonna look like his.  My parents aren't going to support that.  My church is going to laugh at me."  Fear kept me from pursuing the passions of my spirit.  It kept me stagnant.  In a way, I was "dead" to my spirit.  It wasn't until I was able to move through the fear and trust the voice, that I would become born again - to trust the invisible to move the visible.  

Are we tapping into spirit of God within us, the spirit that whispers through our deepest passions and desires?  Or, are we putting it on hold, writing it off as childishness and unimportant?  When we find the courage to listen to the voice, we find the kingdom of God.  We find a reality that we had never seen before.  It becomes the new normal.  No longer does life revolve around money, school, religion, food, or even ministry.  It revolves now around how well we're paying attention and responding to the spirit inside us - how well we're tapping into our deepest desires.  

So, have we been born again?  Have we started listening to the spirit of God, the invisible form, the voice inviting us into our deepest desires?  As we go out today, may we be intentional about doing one thing that connects us with the spirit.  If it's playing music, may we create time to do that.  If it's serving the homeless, may we find a homeless person.  If we're passionate about painting, may we create space to do that today.  Sometimes, all it takes is a few brush strokes to realize that all this time we were letting people, places, and things control us.  We were submitting, just to the wrong things.  Today, lets choose to submit to the Spirit and find what it means to be born again.