No, I'm not talking about reincarnation. I'm talking about those people who call themselves born again Christians and can sometimes seem rather obnoxious.
"Yes, I'm a Christian."
"But are you born again?"
"I'm a Christian, what are you talking about?"
The truth is, that we can't actually be Christians without being born again. When Jesus talked to Nicodemus about this, Nicodemus pointed out that we can't physically be born again, so Jesus explained that this was a spiritual matter. (John's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 1 - 21)
As babies, we are born into humankind, the humankind that rebelled against God. As a consequence, we are born with bodies, minds and souls that are all functioning, but our spirits are not awake to God. That part of us still has to be birthed. Until that happens, we are not aware of God: we don't hear him, probably don't talk to him; we see our lives as the sum of our health, family, interests and jobs, but probably not as God's children with a whole spiritual side to our lives. Some people are born quite in touch with the spiritual realm, but don't know the God who created the Universe and his Son, Jesus, who saved us from having to live without God, or his Holy Spirit who is willing to live in us.
We can even go to church, attend every week, sing the hymns, give an amen to the prayers, say the responses written on the the service sheet or in the prayer book, take communion, recite the creed, even read out the prayer of confession and accept absolution. We might have been baptized as babies and chosen to be confirmed (or told by our parents that we were going to do that), but not know God. We can understand a lot about him, but not have a personal relationship with him. For that we need to be born again.
Being born of the Spirit lets us live free like the wind.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that we have to be born of water and the Spirit to enter Heaven. The Jews knew about being born of water, which, apart from physical birth, was also very topical because of the stir that John the Baptist had created, baptizing huge numbers of people in the River Jordan as a sign of their repentance. Jesus, though, added being born of the Spirit. He said that flesh gives birth to flesh - our parents give us our bodies - but our spirits have to be born from Spirit. We need to repent, turn away from our past lives, be baptized as a sign of accepting Jesus Christ as our saviour, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, who sets our spirits alive to God. The change is remarkable when we open our spirits to God and allow him to fill us. A whole spiritual realm is opened to us and our lives change accordingly - it causes us to feel truly alive in a way that nothing else can.
If we've been used to our lives being defined by our health, family, interests and job, then suddenly the lid comes off and our lives are defined spiritually, in line with what God wants for us. Jesus put it like this: "The wind blows where it wants; you hear it, but don't know where it comes from, or where it goes. It's like that for everyone born of the Spirit." (John's Gospel, chapter 3, verse 8, my paraphrase) That doesn't sound like business as usual to me.