A NEW LEAF OR A NEW LIFE? -- Devotional for July 15, from "Good Seeds"

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

It is part of the human experience to initiate new starts in our lives. As we grow, the anniversary of our birth becomes less an excuse to have a party with refreshments, games and presents, and more of a time to take stock and ask ourselves where we’ve been and where we’re going. And then there is the birthday of the year itself, New Year’s Day. Some folks celebrate it as if it were a real person requiring attention and honor. But whether or not we do that, how difficult is it to wake up on any given January 1st and not contemplate making some changes in our lives, via New Year’s Resolutions? Holidays that commemorate the noble character and heroic deeds of the great men and women of our nation can stimulate us to be better students of history, and better citizens, too. What else can work powerfully to turn our focus inward? Someone finally hits bottom in his struggle with alcohol or some other equally debilitating addiction. It often takes some publicly embarrassing or personally painful trauma to bring this about, such as causing a car accident or losing a marriage partner, to make him realize it’s time to “turn over a new leaf.” Whether by an ever-increasing dissatisfaction with life as usual, or by some heart rending personal tragedy, at one time or another most everyone will become disenchanted with his life and crave a new start, a fresh beginning. Outward signs always point to inward need. Jesus put it most succinctly when He said, “You must be born again.” The phrase born again has become associated with the modern evangelistic movement, seen at the local church level as well as in citywide crusades that feature powerful sermons by no-nonsense preachers. Modern thinkers, some even within Christendom, tend to look askance at the phrase, often because of its association with hyper-fundamentalism, but to do this is to forget that it comes straight from the Bible – indeed, straight from the lips of our Lord Himself, in His evangelistic sermon to an audience of one: Nicodemus. This man was a seeker, to be sure, but he came with a boatload of baggage, mostly in the form of self-righteous, religious trappings and traditions. Jesus would have none of it: “It’s all part of your old life, Nicodemus, not something to be salvaged, but to be trashed. The solution, as the problem, is as simple as it is universal: you must be born again. You don’t repairs – you need a replacement!” Is this a message modern man is missing, too, in the midst of all his introspection, self-help programs and self-improvement schemes? Jesus has the same message today, to God-rejecters and Christ-seekers alike: “You must be born again!”