Have Faith

     The room was packed.  Residence students and commuters as well as over forty prospective students lined the room as pastor Doug Klassen took the stage.  Doug had been living at CMU all week while he ministered to students, listened to their problems, prayed with them, and gave several talks at chapel and Wednesday Night Worship.  Now he was giving his final chapel talk before leaving for his home in Calgary.  
     Some time ago, Doug had received a hospital call.  As he hung up the phone his heart sank, because he had just been called to the delivery ward.  He walked in the door to see a young woman in tears.  Her baby was more than a month premature and she was about to go into labour.  Doug sat down and asked her what she wanted him to do.  
     "Pray for me and ask God to stop the delivery," she said.
     Doug put his hands together, and started to pray.  "God.."
     The woman clasped his hand.  "Look at me," she hissed.  "Look me in the eye.  Do you actually believe that God can do this?"
     "W..well yes."
     "No, no no.  Do you actually believe that God can stop this delivery?"
     Doug found his resolve.  "Yes.  Yes I do."
     And Doug started to pray.  "God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I beg you to stop this delivery.  Please assert your power over this situation and save this child..."
     He prayed for several minutes.  The trembling didn't stop.  Then he took a Bible and began reading through Psalms.
     Doug walked out of the room an hour later.  The woman was asleep.  Later he found out that she had been discharged without incident from the hospital.
     There are, of course, many possible explanations for this story.  Perhaps Doug calmed the woman down, saving the child.  Or maybe she wasn't actually about to go into labour.  But this story isn't new.  Doug has seen miraculous things like this enough times that he cannot but believe that God has real and undeniable power.
      But do we actually believe that?  Do we as Christians actually believe that God has power over situations, so much so that God can cause positive healing in people's lives that we might not have ever thought possible?  Because until we do, Doug says, any sort of change that we attempt in our churches in order to draw people in and to be truly relevant to them -- all of that will be of limited helpfulness.
     What will help?  Doug's answer is simple.
     Faith.


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