All Aboard!!

Yesterday we kicked off our discussion about The Polar Express. A wonderful movie which draws us in with its graphics but engages us in the love of the story, while helping us to embrace the truth that believing is seeing.

Another great lesson to pull from this movie, is that sometimes spiritual believing and seeing, requires a a physical encounter of faith.

At the end of the movie, when the little boy is being dropped off at his house, the conductor steps off the train, and stands in front of him. They are both standing there in the snow, with cold breath on their faces, and wonder in their eyes.

Then the conductor says something very profound. He said "It doesn’t matter where you’re going; what matters is deciding to get on.”

Such a true statement. Sometimes we think where we are going in life is what is most important. We focus on building careers, raising families, making money, gaining financial success, recovering from losses, and just getting through each day.

But even though we are all living in the same world, we all have different paths in life, different careers, different families, different struggles, different sins - our lives all go in different directions.

But our differences do not matter at all, where we are going does not matter at all, and what we are working towards does not matter at all.

God sees us as His children, despite what path we may be on.

He never intended for us to all be alike, or to lead the same lives or to even go in the same directions.

What matters is that we trust God enough to get on board with Him, while the opportunity is still here.

What matters is that we embrace the opportunity to be on a life journey with God, ANd once we do that, that we allow Him to be the conductor.

What matters is that we have faith. Real faith. Faith that believes in the unseen, just like a child.

But lets be honest - it takes a lot of child-like faith to believe that the baby lying in a dirty old manger, was the God of all time; the creator of the universe; the Almighty of everything; the great I Am; the King of all Kings; the resurrected Savior; the supernatural, invisible force that guides every step we take.

It takes a lot of faith to believe that Gods hands and lips wrote every word in the 66 books of the Bible, in all its prophecy, purpose and perfection.

It takes a lot of faith to believe God is still in control, when our world seems to be falling prey to evil and destruction every day.

It takes a lot of faith to trust that God is orchestrating our lives in a predestined way that He ordained.

It takes a lot of faith to believe that God hears our prayers amid the millions of prayers floating to the heavens during each millisecond, and that He cares about having an intimate and personal relationship with us.

But just as the little boy believed in Santa after his personal encounter with him, we will believe when we encounter Jesus in our own lives. And that encounter can only happen through faith.

Just as the little boy "heard" the bells once his faith was reawakened and renewed, we will "see" and "hear" Jesus when we truly believe, with an unshakable faith.

If we long to enjoy an abundant life, with God leading the way, we first have to decide to get on board - with our whole hearts, minds and souls.

Lets make a conscious decision today to hold onto the magic that we once held in your hearts for Jesus, and to have the faith of a child.

Hop aboard my friend, and invite everyone you know. You do not need a ticket, in fact, you can ride for free.

Matthew 18:3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (NIV)