Born Again

I was raised in mostly Utah and Idaho in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of my friends were members or at least knew who we were and generally what we believed. Those who weren't members - I don't remember them being a part of any one set religion. Then I moved to Texas when I was 17. Almost everyone knew Jesus, which for some reason I did not expect. My first culture shock was when I moved to Saudi Arabia when I was 14, but I expected it to be a completely different world there. At 17, I traveled by car instead of 5 planes to get to this new place. I knew there was an LDS church building that we would go to so we wouldn't have to hold our own meetings in our home. But I had no idea there were so many other churches. I'd say I definitely grew up sheltered in the "jello belt" (what a previous professor likes to call Utah and Idaho). I had seen a little bit about how other churches were different on Tv; mostly that they were a little louder than our Sacrament meetings (unless you're in a ward full of toddlers). But I had never really interacted with many others and discussed religion, beliefs, standards, etc. I'd heard the phrase "born again" in movies, but couldn't recall hearing anyone exclaim it in person before I moved to San Antonio. And I obviously didn't study my scriptures very well because the phrase was just so foreign to me. It may not be a part of our Mormon vernacular, but it sure is part of our religion.

So, that's the topic I chose for this week's blog: born again. I love how literal some of the people in the scriptures are. As Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus, a Jewish ruler, in John Chapter 3, He tells him that he must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus must have thought Christ was crazy to ask him to jump back into a womb as an old man. Really, Nico states, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3:4) Some explanation is quite necessary for those of us with thick heads ;) Jesus goes on and explains, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (3:5). A few points here: First, He is obviously not talking about a literal rebirth from our mother again (Heaven knows she should only have to do that once for each kid!) Christ is speaking metaphorically of a different kind of birth, which I will get to next. Second, in verse 3 Christ uses the word "see" before the phrase "kingdom of God," whereas in verse 5 He uses the word "enter" instead. Without this rebirth, we can do neither.

But what's the difference? I love how these two ideas connect to a phrase in Moses 6:59 stating, "... even so ye must be born again ... that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory." To me, seeing the kingdom of God is hope in this life that we may one day have eternal life if we have been born again, and to enter into the kingdom would, of course, be to actually live eternally with Christ. It's a two-part blessing just as it is a two-part commitment.

But wait, once you're born again, isn't that it? This is what baffled me the most when talking religion in Texas. I've always thought of life as a - well, a life-long process of perfection, not simply a one-time occurrence somewhere between your mortal life and death where you accept Jesus and that's it. It's not a live-how-you-want-since-Jesus-is-your-Savior kind of deal once you are baptized. It's a process of not only believing Christ but being like Christ. Why in the world would He have lived a perfect life if He didn't expect us to follow Him? Especially when He says, "Come, follow me"? We must accept Christ, be born again, and then "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Now, I don't know about you, but I do not change easily. I don't become a new person in a day or in an hour. It's been two weeks since I quit my job and have been trying to transition to stay-at-home-mom, and I'm still as crazy as I was last Monday! They painted my downstairs carpet this week. It was fantastic. Lots of crying and screaming. But that's why we have this nice long life, right? It's a process of learning patience and temper control and patience again once we think we've mastered it.

It's not just about being baptized - born of the water - no matter what church you attend; it's also about being born of the Spirit - striving for that new life - with the Holy Ghost guiding us and Christ literally saving us from those shortcomings. Heavenly Father loves us all so much that He sent Christ to atone for all those shortcomings and transgressions and sins that we were bound to make. They both love all of us more than we can comprehend. And even though we - I can't be the only one who freaks out when the carpet gets painted - have a lot of things to get better at, Heavenly Father continues to bless us. He gives us those days to better ourselves because He loves us and wants us to come home, to enter the kingdom. We just have to decide to keep being born again every day.