Begin Again

Why do we fear starting something new?  Or more specifically, starting something over again?  You would think, particularly as we grow older, that we would realize that our lives start and re-start constantly.  Every day is a possibility to start something new, to change old habits, to re-energize the mind, to embolden the spirit.  But at some point every one of us convince ourselves that it isn’t worth the energy to follow through on new beginnings.  We are who we are.  We’ve become something, so why change?  The past is past, but it has authored our future in such a way that starting over is impossible.  We tell ourselves that we don’t have time, or feel unequipped, or have lived one too many disappointments to strike out afresh one more time. 

As followers of Jesus, I wonder how we justify those ideas?  After all, didn’t Jesus say in his glory, “Behold, I make all things new”?  Isn’t the witness of being a little-Christ that we are born again?  Or is ‘born again’ just another way of saying ‘evangelical’ or ‘church-goer’?  Maybe we’ve missed something here.  Maybe rebirth in Christ is something larger than a one time event.  In fact, rebirth is a reality we step into as a follower of Jesus that will stay with us for eternity.  We are new creatures preparing for a renewed creation.

The Gospel of Jesus says that we are not just “who we are” anymore.  That death sentence has been revoked and replaced with an eternal fountain of new possibilities.  Imagine that everyday you woke up and believed that you truly got a fresh start.  The guilt or pain or sorrow of yesterday was forgotten.  You were on Day Zero of Life.

Isn’t that what being Born Again really means?

In the past year, a lot has changed for me and Amber.  From the outside it may not appear so, but on the inside it’s been a wholesale transformation.  The dreams of many years are taking shape before our eyes.  For me, the most difficult thing has been believing that I am ready, that I can be something else other than what I have been.  I am continually wanting to return to the safety of the familiar - to believe that the past has authored the future - and to stay complacent.  But I’ve been hearing fresh voices.  I’m reading again.  I’m listening to the heart-cries around me.  I’m feeling the pull to new ideas and challenging questions.  Believe me, it is very easy to believe the whispers that I am who I am, change is not likely, that the dreams will remain just that…dreams. 

I’m posting this today for me, not to convince anyone of anything, or to advertise, or to be controversial.  This is a marker, a monument.  I will not believe the lies.  I am a born again person.  New birth is my birth-right.  Will you believe it too?