Tomorrow I’m going to try an experiment, and I am hoping the results will prove my point. I’m not totally sure that they will and that makes me a little nervous. 

I am going to conduct this experiment in front of about fifty people. If I don’t get the results I am hoping for, well, the conclusion or the point that I am going to be making will be wrong. 

In fact, I won’t have a point to make! 

I sure hope my plan will work out, but I have no way of knowing beforehand if it will or not. 

This will not be a controlled environment at all … unlike, say, the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). 

WWE fans watch their favourite wrestler go up against an opponent whom they hope will be defeated. As they watch the ebb and flow of the match, they don’t have any idea who is going to win. Sometimes it looks like their wrestler is going to lose because he’s in a choke hold or he’s been hit so hard he can’t stand up. But then the tables turn and he starts to get the better of his opponent.  

It just goes back and forth until the final bell and the winner is revealed. 

In actuality, the wrestlers know from the start who will win. All their holds and hits are just to create tension and excitement; everything’s been choreographed before the match begins.

It’s all rigged to give the fans as much hype and emotion as possible.

I used to do this very thing with my kids when they were young. We would play football in our family room and it would alway be Karlie and Michael against me … and it was tackle. 

In reality, I could tackle them but, of course, they couldn’t tackle me, so I had to fake like they did. 

I would decide in my mind what the final score would be. I would let them get a big lead and then slowly make a comeback. They would get so frantic that I might beat them. 

When I could see they were getting too frantic, I’d let them get a touchdown to give them some hope. Then I would create some tension for them, that they could hardly stand, before letting them win in the end. 

… And, wow, were they ever excited when they won! 

I would just chuckle inside at their joy in defeating Dad in such dramatic fashion. … But I knew the results before we even started. 

Well, I can’t do that with this experiment tomorrow. It has to play out the way it will go. 

I think it will go my way. I hope it will go my way. But if it doesn’t, I will not have a point to make to the fifty people who will be listening to my talk. 

I can hardly wait.

Here’s the thing: I’m pretty sure that my experiment will work; I only have faith to go on. In this world you can try to figure out your future, your eternity. But when it comes down to the day you cross over from life to death, there is only faith that you believe the results will prove you right. God has given us so much help, beauty, wonder, a precise ordered world, a guide book (the Bible) and his Son, Jesus – all to give us confidence in Him. But it will all come down to your faith. Do you believe Him? It’s your big experiment. … My faith is firmly placed in Jesus Christ. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you put your faith in? Leave your comments and questions below.