Our Second Birth

Many Christians today are not interested in what others describe as a second birth.  But Jesus gives a graphic picture to Nicodemus about the spiritual birth that needs to happen before one can enjoy full relationship with God.

Nicodemus kept thinking in terms of something physical and Jesus kept talking about being born of the Spirit.  Birth is the essential word because as our anger and guilt and shame are washed away, our new original Self is born in us.  We are not the same as we were before.

Both kinds of birthing include labor—and pain.  Our spiritual birth includes the tears and anguish of remorse of all that we have committed and omitted in our attempts to make ourselves into what we thought we ought to be.  There has to be some rearranging of our personality—which has a similar trauma to the pain of parturition.

But just as a mother will declare, as she dotes on the infant she has born, that all the labor pains are worth the result, so one who has experienced spiritual rebirth will declare those labor pains produced something invaluable.

Your second birth awaits your cooperation.

Ann Glover O’Dell

5 August 2018

The Secret

Throughout the Psalms the writers entreat God to take away their sin.  And through the prophets God tells his people he will take their sin away.  So what does that have to do with us today?  Is anybody asking God to remove his sin, and does God’s promise still hold?

Many wonder if God desires to be active in the lives of mankind since few examples are seen.  I argue that once we remember the secret and act on it, we can be recipients of the sin-dissolving grace of God.  Remember the prophets who engaged in conversation with God?  Especially the one who looked for God in the storm and whirlwind but found him in the still small voice?  And Samuel who heard God calling his name in the night?  And look at the example Jesus gave, repeatedly going to a quiet place to commune with his Father.

And Gethsemane.  We have only one part of the conversation but we can imagine that God was making himself heard in that exchange.  God’s secret, which is described throughout scripture, is the spiritual conversation God wants to have with us in order to initiate the cleansing we need.

Our free will is as important to God as his love for us.  He will not override the will he has given us.  Instead, he waits for our permission to do what is necessary to wash away all that is blocking us from joyful relationship with him.  Our participation in God’s salvific act is what is required.

It is up to us to initiate the dialog that will give us the confidence in God’s power so that we will give the important permission.  Take paper and pencil and begin with a question.  You are always in control.

Ann Glover O’Dell

6 August 2018

What to Do About Garbage

We know what to do with our domestic garbage: set it on the curb at the appointed time and sanitation workers will take it away.  What about our internal garbage—the kind that seems to increase no matter our attempts at removal?

Perhaps we think we haven’t yet exhausted all our ideas for removing the debilitating mess of resentment and unresolved grief inside us.  Perhaps we think our angry tapes will simply self-destruct if we have enough patience.  Perhaps we’re practicing detachment from our guilt and shame and hoping that will work.

The truth is we cannot by our own power rid ourselves of what has come between us and the Kingdom of God.  We cannot set out on our spiritual curb a container of what separates us from the peace of God.  Our spiritual garbage is none other than what scripture refers to as sin.

The psalmist declares that once God washes us, we become whiter than snow.  The psalmist does not declare, however, that we are able to wash ourselves.  If we were able to cleanse ourselves of our spiritual garbage, we might decide we had no need of God.  God wants us to need him to effect the miracle of cleansing and transformation.  And God wants us to participate in that miracle.

Ann Glover O’Dell

6 august 2018