Born Again Christian

I was recently filling out a questionnaire which posed the usual question of which religion or denomination I belong to. Ordinarily I perfunctorily check the “Lutheranism” box, or if that is not available then the “Other Christian” option. But this time I was given the option of “Born Again Christian”. I have seen this category a number of times in past surveys, but certainly never considered myself to be of that category….not until now.

I had always looked upon the Born Again Christians with a wee bit of envy. They are always the most effusively joyful people, possessing a prodigious passion and zeal for God that I had rarely, if ever, seen in the Christians who are born into the Faith.

To my rational mind this seemed to indicate that you had to experience the lowest of lows of apostasy to be able to then experience the highest of highs of Christianity. Maybe you had to be in total apostasy and be at such a low point in life -someone like a drug-dealing pimp or heroin-addicted harlot who is in anguish and despair and at the point of suicide- in order to fully appreciate the amazing gifts of forgiveness and agape that Christ offers.

Can the sweetest of sweet tastes only be appreciated by those who have tasted the sourest of sour flavours? This was my fear. I so dearly wanted the effusive relationship with God that these people experienced. The joy in their eyes, the ecstasy on their faces and the enthusiasm in their dance, simply over their love of God; I wanted that!!!

Well those depressing fears have been disabused in the last month. The joy in my heart and the zeal for God in my soul certainly seems commensurate with these previously apostate born-again Christians, not that it’s a competition! But the spiritual high that God is bestowing on me certainly satiates my soul. So much so that I have no doubt that I now belong in the “Born Again Christian” category!

Hallelujah! God is indeed Great!!!