One of the funniest scenes from a movie for me is near the beginning of "Look Who's Talking", a film of modest merit that deals with the cynical observations of a baby boy as he begins his life's journey.

Coming down the birth canal, he can't quite figure out what in his world is going on. Upon arrival into the brilliant lights of a delivery room, he screams only to be put back where he once was all cozy and comfy. But there is, of course, no going back.

To be born again into the spiritual journey of Christ is to give up what was once comfy and cozy. It is to realize that we will never look at our world in quite the same way again. We have been called into a whole new way of living, a whole new way of seeing things and there really is no going back.

Remember those days when you were angry at your mom or dad...angry at all the terrible injustices you had already faced and were certain to face again? Do you remember what you used to holler from behind your closed bedroom door?

"I didn't ask to be born!"

There is a part of my theology that says the same about being born again. I know there is a big movement within Christianity that talks as if being born again is up to us but I'm not so sure. I wonder if Jesus' use of this vivid metaphor with Nicodemus doesn't apply to this issue.

Maybe being born again is as much up to God as our first being born was up to Mom and Dad?

In other words, maybe it is simply our destiny to be put onto a spiritual path with Christ. And just as we can make a real muddle of this earthly life of ours, so can we of our spiritual life. It is there for us to do with it as we will.

I know I am convinced that every one of us has a spiritual dimension, call it soul, call it whatever, and just as there are some of us who choose to waste our physical life on stupid things, so, too, are there many of us who do the same with this spiritual life God has birthed us into.

Part of what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is, "Wake up, buddy! There is a wonderful life all around you that you haven't yet taken advantage of."

Could Christ be saying that to us, as well?