In certain streams of Christianity, it is common to speak of people being "born again." The phrase comes from an exchange between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus in the third chapter of John. In that exchange, Jesus contrasts being born of the flesh with being born of the Spirit.
To be born of the flesh is to be shaped by the genes of your parents and their background. You come into this world with a heritage as a given. Because you live according to the demands of the flesh, you also possess the bodily desires and needs, emotional fears, and human vulnerabilities that all humans experience.
To be born of the Spirit is different. To be born of the Spirit is not a given but a choice. We can choose to respond to a force that is beyond the natural universe. Often this Spirit enables…