Why I Believe

Flying back from the Florida Keys yesterday, I watched the movie "Men Who Stare At Goats". I needed a diversion during the flight and absentmindedly chose this one. I am glad that I did.

Obviously a comedy, the film is about a military squad that believes it has super powers and can stare a goat to death, run through walls and use psychic thoughts to find people. Oh course, they do not, but they believe they do and that is what makes the difference. They believe. It doesn't matter what other people think. So they live their lives and complete their assignments as though the river of destiny is taking them to their purposes in life.

The humor is dark throughout the movie but I was struck by the principal theme. If you can believe in something, and sustain that believe in spite of whatever reality throws at you, then you have accomplished something supernatural. Something holy.

I think that this is what I have tried to do in my career. At the Jefferson Street Baptist Chapel we believed that a church could be reborn though it was surely dying and that it could impact an entire community. It had little going for it, but we believed anyway. And in a few short years it became a special place that people flocked to and it ended up making a very significant difference to that community.

And at Union Mission we believed that entire populations of sick, hurting, and lost people could be made well and make their ways home again. Even when they had no home to go to at all. And over the past two decades that is exactly what we have done though we had little to accomplish great things with in the beginning other than the fact that we believed.

Sometimes it is very hard to sustain the things that we believe in. There are those who believe that pain is necessary or that we must constantly adjust what we hope to accomplish in light of the realities around us. Alas, I am not one of those people.

I believe that we can all find happiness and love again even though the reality that we find ourselves in are void of these things. I have also learned that I am not a quitter. Everything takes longer than it should, I often tell people, and I keep at it even though nothing seems to be happening. I've learned that most people stop trying too soon and walk away from the possibilities.

Throughout the movie, men stare at walls willing themselves to run through them. Of course, every time they try, they hit the wall and knock themselves backwards to the floor. But they keep trying anyway. And at the end, one pulls it off and runs though a wall.

I count myself as one of these people. I'll hold on to my belief that walls of division will come tubbling down and that everyone can live happily ever after.