Marble is known as "the home of positive thinking." That is due, of course, to the world-famous book written by our former pastor, Norman Vincent Peale. Marble has for years been at the forefront of a movement that is once again picking up steam in both the theological and psychological arenas of the world. People are once more discovering and embracing the authentic power of positive thinking. Dyer and Chopra and Osteen and Dave Shearon and Barbara Frederickson are all selling countless books, restating the case Peale made over a half century ago.

Yesterday afternoon I bumped into a man who hosts a radio talk show on a station in Connecticut. We began to discuss the state of things in the world and how easy it is for people to succumb to despair unless they have something encouraging to hold onto. Before the conversation ended, he invited me to be a guest on his show -- not because his listeners know me, but rather because they know you! He wanted a representative of "the positive thinking church" to answer his listeners' questions about life that often seems overcome with problems and pains.

Positive thinking is not naiveté. It is not approaching the world in a Pollyana fashion, convincing ourselves that "Every day in every way, life is getting better and better." It is, instead, looking at life in all its raw reality and saying: "I believe that God can help me deal with this. I believe that God can even make something virtuous and meaningful out of this. In fact, I’m positive God can!" In that sense, positivity is not just an act of the human will but even more so an act of faith. For the Christian, "I think I can" always means "I believe I can, by God’s grace."

Today I opened two letters from people who hunger to hear a positive alternative to life's challenges, a word of hope based on faith and experience. Interestingly, I also opened a letter from a friend and former church member who said, "I ran across a little poem I thought you’d like." It was intriguing how his poem spoke directly to the concerns expressed in those other two letters. Let me share with you the poem I received from Don Shutt:

If you think you’re beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t;
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,
It’s almost sure that you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost;
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a person’s will,
It’s all in the state of mind.

Countless times, following a miracle, Jesus would compliment the recipient by saying: "Your faith has made you whole." In short, the person had partnered with God in making a good dream come true simply by believing that it could. I cannot promise you that every pain or every problem will be resolved simply by thinking positive thoughts. But, I can assure you that without approaching life from a perspective of positive faith, the pains and problems will only grow greater. No great victory is ever achieved by someone who is convinced it can’t be done. Believe in God. Believe in yourself. Believe in the future. In so doing, we begin to see how positive results come from a positive perspective.