Born Again

Richard Rohr, in his book Immortal Diamond, talks about our true self, the new self, 

our dare I say it, 

 born again self, 

which has been breathed on, baptized with the Spirit, the breath of God, versus our false self.  Which is our earth bound, old self.

The False Self, he writes, “is who you think you are. Your thinking does not make it true. Your False Self is almost entirely a social construct to get you started on your life journey. It is a set of agreements between your childhood and your parents, your family, your neighbors, your school chums, your partner or spouse, and your religion. It is your “container” for your separate self. Jesus would call it your “wineskin,” which he points out usually cannot hold any new wine (Mark 2: 21-22).

Your False Self is how you define yourself outside of love, relationship, or divine union. After you have spent many years laboriously building this separate self, with all its labels and preoccupations, you are very attached to it. And why wouldn’t you be? It’s what you know and it’s all you know. To move beyond it will always feel like losing or dying… Your False Self is how you define yourself outside of love,

relationship, or divine union.”

The earth bound self.  The self, shaped and defined by so many influences, but often, powerfully, by that reality that entity called “religion.”

This self must die

We must let it go

All of it

And be “born from on high”

Rohr frequently makes the comment that the goal of faith, the goal of spirituality is not perfection, but divine union.

That is the point!

Participating in, seeing the kingdom

Is not a matter of knowledge

It is not a matter of following the rules

Singing the right songs

Participating in the right rituals

It is about letting the Spirit awake the Spirit within

It is about letting go of all our old securities

And definitions

And letting the wind of God blow us where it will

Let God re-create us

And help us start all over 

again