A new take on being born again...

This is an excerpt from my journal for November 15, 2007. Tonight, Bethany and I were talking about being in Africa and the desire to raise awareness about what we see. We see much of our generation desiring to change things… desiring to do things differently… desiring to solve problems and create a new world. It’s not radical as this is exactly what every generation has done in some way. It’s not rebellion as every generation desires to break from the mold that the previous generation has created. We see our generation crying out against injustices around the world. No longer will it be ok for 1 out of 6 people in Africa to live on less than one dollar a day. No longer will it be ok for 1200 children to die of a preventable cause in the thirty to forty minutes that it will take me to write this blog entry. To my idealism, it feels like a generation is waking up.

Therefore, Bethany and I were talking about an awakening and our desire to add fuel to the fire by telling our story and the stories that we hear and see here in Africa. To raise awareness of a reality that we see daily. This blog entry is a thought on awakening… on being born again…on resurrection from the dead. (In metaphorical terms… of course.)


Bethany's Brilliant Thought...
Bethany mentioned that this awakening in our generation and our experiences here in Africa are causing her to wonder if being born again doesn’t mean a one time experience—that oh-so-glorified conversion experience—but rather a process of awakening. Born again—that implies new life. What if it’s about an awakening, a revival of the mind, body, and soul? What if it’s more about a journey of awakening in which we are born again and raised from the dead? What if it’s about a journey rather than a destination or a one-time experience of conversion?

Christ comes in and begins to burn away all the dross—those impurities which we may have accumulated over time. So being born again may actually have something to do with becoming who we were when we were first born rather than becoming someone else or finding who we are to be. Yes, we are new in Christ… but newness doesn’t have to mean we become something completely different in a blink of an eye. Maybe newness refers more to being raised from the dead to a new life which is a process. II Corinthians something or other says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” And in some other place it says, “I am made alive in Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” [Forgive me if I misquoted something] Maybe being born again is about awakening, that we may actually come alive.

When the old self, the dross that has built up around the original beauty, has died or been burned away so that there is unblemished purity and beauty and unity, is completely gone, a rebirth can happen. Born again. Alive. Awakening. When we are born again in Christ, our journey is redirected along a different path, a path of awakening and renewal. A path of resurrection from the dead, old self. In Christianese terms, it’s called sanctification, the process in which Christ draws us closer to Himself and makes us holy as He is holy. So this journey, this awakening I see my generation experiencing, may actually be the product of Christ being made alive in me. The process of being born again. The process of our awakening.

(See John 3—Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus about being born again. “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Vs. 6)

“Come awake, from sleep arise.
You were dead, now come alive.
Wake up, wake up, open your eyes.
Climb from your grave, into the light.”

-David Crowder

Here in Africa, I am seeing how this is true for myself. I am in a completely new place, experiencing horrible, difficult… though beautiful things. The comforts, luxuries, and securities of home have been stripped away and Will is decreasing because by himself, Will will fall apart. My dross is in the endless of process of being burned away.

Yesterday, I realized that my pride and insecurity causes me to fight change—that which is different from what I’ve known. I fight admitting things to myself that may not be easy to accept. I fight the stages that I go through. I fight the changes in myself because it's uncomfortable... I have to become someone else. I fight admitting things like how much I care about people because it leaves me open for pain at a later time. I fight letting I AM have control because I want to hold to my i am...ness.

But I am being born again. I am learning that I shouldn’t fight the stages as much, but that I should accept it as a process. Last week, I understood that the balance is more like a pendulum. I’m learning that balance shouldn't be a lever with equal weight on both sides, but instead it should be the balance of a pendulum with God as the anchor point... if you always had equal weight, you'd never move and therefore never grow. Instead, the pendulum’s momentum speeds up and slows down in relation with our distance from God. When we get far enough away from him, our momentum slows to a stop (we run ourselves to a standstill). Finally, we are pulled back into God, momentum quickening once more. In those stages, we’ll learn and grow. We can’t always be going at top speed, right underneath God. But we can’t always remain still either. In fact, we spend most of our time in the transition stages, either to reach maximum momentum or a complete stop, only to be pulled back in to the center by the anchor point—God.

Therefore, I’m experiencing an awakening, a renewal of my mind, body, and soul in which God is showing me so much about leaving, changing, stages, love, and faith. Don’t fight the stages. Don’t be afraid to leave yourself…who knows, maybe you just had to leave it in order to find it again, in a new and beautiful way. Don’t be afraid to die and be born again, alive in Christ.

lovewill

There's a little red bridge with the view of the sun with a lake
Recommends such a setting sight
And the thousands of stars come out thousands of times
We can go, only if you believe.

Only if you believe.

-Angels and Airwaves “Call To Arms”