[This is adapted from part of a sermon I preached a while back, but I think it bears repeating.]

I can only assume that there are people sitting here today who don’t believe any of this, about the Great Epic – beginning, middle or end – or people who are at least wondering how much of it they do or can believe.  Even if you are the most devoted follower of Jesus, I think it is healthy to ask yourself, “What if we’re wrong?”  “What if in the end reality proves my faith, our faith, to be foolishness, and all our hopes in God to be false hopes?”

If you lived your life into this epic story, lived a life of faith and obedience to God and God’s Good Kingdom, the Dream of God, only to find out that it was all a fairy tale or a lie:

• You would have lived a life with more humility than you otherwise would have because you believed that we are all in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
• You would have lived a more moral life than you otherwise would have, because you believed that the choices we make with the opportunities we’ve been given matter to God and would be judged, and also because your beliefs taught you to love what is good and hate what is evil.
• You would have lived life with more compassion than you otherwise would have because you believed you were following a God that is compassionate and cares deeply about those who are hurting and suffering – “the least of these.”
• You would have lived your life with more courage than you otherwise would have because you believed you were following a God who courageously served and sacrificed for the good of others – even when those others acted like his enemies.
• You would have loved more selflessly than you otherwise would have because you believed that God loves you so selflessly that God came and died for you and also because you believed that this same God wants you to love others just as selflessly.
• You would have forgiven more and more easily than you otherwise would have because you believed that God had forgiven you.
• You would given far more of your time and money to other people and worthy causes than you otherwise would have because you believed in a God that is generous and wants you to be generous with what you’ve been given.
• You would have lived with a greater sense of purpose than you otherwise would have, because you believed that whatever you do for God and other people in this world, no matter how big or how small it is, no matter who notices it, God sees it and will use it for an eternal good. You would have had a greater sense of purpose because you would have lived your life believing that you were a part of something huge, something that mattered, something epic.
• You would have lived your live with a greater sense of connection to other people than you otherwise would have: a special connection with thousands and millions and billions of people from all over the world because they share similar hopes and beliefs in Jesus, but also with all people because you believed that like you they were uniquely and wonderfully created in the image of God.
• You would have lived your life with a greater sense of well-being than you otherwise would have because you believed that no matter what you did, no matter what you went through that there was a God who knew you, heard your prayers, loved you, and was always with you.
• You would have lived your life with a greater sense of hope than you otherwise would have had, even through the darkest of times, because you believed that good will eventually triumph over evil, that everything that is wrong in the world and wrong in us will eventually be set right, a belief that love, justice, and peace will eventually win the day, that everything will eventually end with a beautiful new beginning.

If it is not true, if we live our lives believing this epic story is true and in the end, reality proves our hopes to be false hopes and our faith to be foolishness, then these things will be all we’ll have to show for our misplaced hopes and our misplaced beliefs – and that is a risk we’re just going to have to live with.

But if we’re not fools,  if there really is a God who is more than good and on a mission to heal, rescue, and restore broken people living in a broken world; if there really is a God who loves us so much that he came among us in Jesus Christ that first Christmas to begin healing the world from the inside out one heart, one person at a time; if it does matter, if it does make a difference in our lives and in the world that we respond to the gift of Jesus by joining God in pursuing God’s Kingdom, God’s Dream, for our lives, for individuals, our communities, and this world; if everything does end with Jesus coming again to set things right and bring a beautiful new beginning, then no matter what happens in this life, no matter how dark the night, we have a reason for joyful hope.

The reality, the story, we believe we are in and how we believe that reality will end shapes how we live and how we experience the moments and the days and the years in middle of the story.

Some things are simply worth believing in.  Some things are worth the risk.