Reset

The worst thing about the original super mario brothers wasn't the graphics or the rather underdeveloped characters. It was the fact that no matter how far you had gone, what you had overcome, even if you were on level 5-4 and you had dodged 7 bullets, gotten 99 coins, and just killed two hammerthrowers with one red shell, you could die. It wasn't like the movies where a super hero could only be defeated by a super villain either, you could bump in a koopa or slide right off the edge. Death cared not for your impressive performance or noble cause. Simultaneously, however, the best thing about the game may be the reset button.

I think that often when we think about becoming a Christian, we think of it as an upgrade (like a fireflower, or maybe that weird leaf thing from the third one, but I digress). We think of it as taking who we are and making it better. As if we are "us" and that God has found us and made us better than we were.

I am not sure that is how it works. It seems too superficial, like a new coat of paint. It is not enough.

I like to think of it more like a reset button. In John chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemas that in order to see God's kingdom, he must be born again. The imagery surrounding rebirth doesn't seem to resemble an upgrade. It is a radical, abrasive event where the world is brand new and you are free to go and sin no more.

We are starting over. We are starting to live the way that God has always planned for us to live. We had been distracted and decieved, but now we are a new creation in Gods image just like at the beginning. It is not just a better way, it is the real way, the only way.

You know that feeling? The one you get when you  love someone so much that it hurts? Or when you give so much that it costs you something? Or when you see new life that you have created for the very first time? Or when you meet with your creator in a near-tangible way? It feels great. It feels the way we wish all of life could feel. These are the reset moments. When nothing before even matters. When for a brief and fleeting moment the divinity buried deep within us from original creation permeates our entire being and we live as God intended. Press reset today.