Born Again
Today at Starbucks I witnessed two lovely people on opposite ends of the political spectrum trying desperately to have a civil conversation about the State of the Union, only to abandon the topic altogether after about 3 minutes. By the end, all they could agree on is that human beings are a good thing and that chocolate is delicious. It was a bit like ships in the night. On separate seas. On different planets… But somewhere between the enormity of humanity and the banality of chocolate lies almost the whole of existence, don’t you think? My peacemaking instinct wanted to help broker some kind of more substantial agreement between these conversationalists, but it was clear to me that they were living in two entirely different universes. A translator would have been little help. Only a miraculous conversion by one of the two parties could have resulted in true unity. And even then, there are more important things than unity (like truth in love, for example). I mean, we can agree with each other and still both be wrong, right? Well, what good is that?
It’s amazing to me that we still speak and behave as though all anyone needs in order to discover The Truth About Things is a little more information. As if our brains weren’t merely the tool we use to understand or rationalize what our hearts already want. Some of us use the term “enlightenment” to describe the sudden realization of a key insight. Yet enlightenment comes from the outside, not from within, doesn’t it? We’re hopelessly devoted to the pursuits of our hearts until our hearts are changed by something outside of them. And how can that happen? Not by information transfer. Jesus taught that we are born blind, dead to the Kingdom of God, and only a miraculous rebirth can give us eyes to see His reign in the world and a heart to reside there. We can’t reason our way to God any more than we can decide to be born. And we can’t reason anyone else’s way there either. This new birth doesn’t come from the will of any man, says Jesus, no matter how skilled in debate we may be. It comes from the Spirit of God, who heals what hearts He pleases, glory be to God alone.
In a way, I was impressed by my Starbucks debaters this morning. They have had enough of this polarized hyper-political atmosphere to recognize they weren’t changing anyone’s mind with arguments or anecdotes, and they moved on. Those things are only useful to a heart already pointed in that direction. God, point our hearts toward you!
- Josh