Staggering global and personal crises confront us daily: Does belief in Jesus really have power to make a difference? Jesus claims it does, but what do we really believe?  If enough of us believe the message of Jesus is true... and act on our beliefs... then the power of belief can be unleashed and everything can change. 

This year, our son Brady enjoyed watching The Polar Express. The movie (based on a book) tells the story of a young boy who is beginning to waiver in his belief in Santa Claus until an extraordinary train ride changes everything.  As the Polar Express roars toward the North Pole and a rendezvous with Santa, the boy embarks on his own “journey” of self-discovery in which he realizes the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.  

As the train reaches the North Pole, the boy and the other children see thousands of elves gathered at the center of town waiting to send Santa Claus on his way. The boy is handpicked by Santa to receive the first gift of Christmas. Realizing that he could choose anything in the world, the boy asks for one beautiful-sounding silver bell from Santa's sleigh. The boy places the bell in the pocket of his robe and all the children watch as Santa takes off into the night for his annual deliveries.

Later, on the train ride home, the boy discovers that the bell has fallen through a hole in his pocket—the robe had ripped earlier in the movie when the boy rushed outside to board the train. The boy arrives home and goes to his bedroom as the train pulls away. Was it all a dream?  Did it really happen? 

On Christmas morning, his sister finds a small package for the boy under the tree, behind all of the other gifts. The boy opens the box and discovers that it is the bell, delivered by Santa who found it on the seat of his sleigh. When the boy rings the bell, both he and his sister marvel at the beautiful sound. His parents, however, are unable to hear the bell and remark that it must be broken. The film ends with a famous quote, taken from the book: 

At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe. 

It struck me as I watched this movie that we Christians can be a lot like the boy in The Polar Express when it comes to our belief in Jesus. Jesus comes to us claiming to possess a power that has potential to change the world and he asks us, simply, to believe.  The promise seems almost too good to be true but at first we embrace it wholeheartedly.  When we begin following Jesus, we often possess a wide-eyed innocent faith, a faith that is unwavering and believes without asking too many questions about the details of “how it all works”—not unlike a young child’s belief in Santa Claus.  

But just as a child grows into adolescence, begins to lose some of his/her naïve innocence about life, and starts to ask tougher questions about the “details” of Santa, we too lose some of our “innocence” as we “mature”.  Living through difficult life circumstances often forces us to wrestle with many tough questions about “how life works” and what difference belief in Jesus really makes. Sometimes things happen either to us or to others in our lives that we just can’t reconcile with the God we’ve come to know and love, and our belief is put to the test.  We are shaken to our core.  How could God let this happen?  We begin to question everything we thought we knew for certain.  (I for one can testify that I have walked this road the past couple of years after living through the loss of a daughter followed by a series of other significant challenges in my life.) 

It’s been said in those moments that we have a choice:  we can either “become better or bitter, break down or break through.”  In other words, if we handle the situation well, we progress to a new “level” of faith and we become better for having lived through the hardship, pain, and suffering.  On the other hand, if we don’t handle it well, we can become hard-hearted and cynical and become bitter as a result of our experiences.   

When we feel “burned by life” and choose to become bitter—and make no mistake, it is a choice on our part—we become like the adults in the The Polar Express who could no longer hear the sound of the bell from Santa’s sleigh on Christmas morning because they no longer believed.  In a similar way, bitter Christians can begin to lose our ability to hear the sweet sound of God’s voice ring out amidst the cacophony of our lives any longer.  We grow more and more skeptical about the power of belief to make a real difference in our lives and in our world.  

For all intents and purposes, we begin to live as practical agnostics.  We may still confess a personal faith in Jesus, but we have serious doubts that the religion that bears Christ’s name has much hope to offer a meaningful response to the daunting personal and global crises that confront us every day of our lives. In the face of the immense and seemingly insurmountable problems that our world faces, belief in Jesus can seem to have about as much value as belief in Santa Claus. 

I think we can trace many of the roots of these doubts about the power of belief to the modern era, where we’ve managed to effectively separate what we believe from what we actually do. In today’s world, what seems to matter most is what we believe on the inside.  There is no expectation that I will make what I believe evident by what I actually do.  The problem with this way of thinking is that when we allow belief to be separated from action, belief loses a great deal of its potential to change our world. When belief is separated from action, it becomes watered down and domesticated and is more likely to be subservient to the “prevailing way” of our world than it is to result in us making much impact on the massive problems facing our world.  

On the other hand, if make what we back up what we claim to believe with action, then the power of belief can be unleashed upon the world once more. Jesus was not crucified for what he believed in his heart; he was crucified because he acted on what he believed. Jesus’ wild, untamed belief that a new way of living was possible in the world has inspired countless unschooled, ordinary men and women throughout history to follow his example, and transformed them into heroes and history changers.  These were people who not only believed in their heart that something different was possible, but who took decisive action in the world based upon those beliefs often against all odds and always in defiance of the status quo.  They “saw” something that the world could not yet see… they heard “music” that most of the world could not yet hear. [Hebrews 11, esp v1] Their belief in what was possible led them to take action, and in many cases, their actions changed the world of their day.    

So while it may be fair to say that belief by itself is not enough—particularly in an era when acting on what we believe is seen as optional—I would argue that belief is an essential starting point. If we who follow Jesus don’t believe a different world is possible, and begin to take action based on our beliefs, then the world is unlikely to change significantly and God’s hopeful vision of what is possible will remain an elusive dream. On the other hand, if enough of us do believe, and are willing to act on those beliefs, then the power of belief is unleashed, and that power has the potential to change everything. 

Imagine, for example, what would happen if our local churches started to see themselves, not so much as a places to worship on a Sunday morning, but as a group of people united behind a common belief that a better world is both desirable and possible.  What if we joined together to work toward making God’s hopeful vision for the world—not yet fully visible—more and more real. What if enough of us became convinced that God’s people throughout history have always been the ones called to help create that “new” world, and that it continues to be the case today.  What if we saw our local congregations as places where people working toward this hopeful vision during the week, in whatever circumstances they may find themselves, could gather for mutual encouragement and support for the difficult work they are doing.  Imagine if we saw our churches as outposts for this new way of living based on the example of Jesus in our various communities, where we could gather to be trained in this new way, and then be sent forth to expose others that we encounter on the “journey” of life to this radical Jesus Way.   

What if what we did started to became contagious—in a good way—and began to “infect” individuals, families, churches, and communities all around the world, and change them for the better.  I’d say that would be the strongest testament we could give that belief still has power to make a difference in our world. 

I hope that you and I never lose our ability to hear the sound of the “bell” sounding out amidst the cacophony and confusion that characterizes daily life on this third rock from the Sun.  I pray that the “sweet music” of God’s voice will play out all the clearer in the year ahead and lead us forward as we work with one another to unleash the power of belief in our world in 2010.