six impossible things

The other day a book caught my eye in the kids' section of the library. It is called Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen. It was the title that captured my attention. I am interested in impossible things.

The phrase sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure why. I brought the book home.

Then, for my birthday, a friend and I went to see the new version of Alice in Wonderland. The theme of the movie was believing the impossible. Alice had been taught to "believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

That's where that phrase came from. Jane Yolen, in writing a collection of fractured type stories, chose to double the number of impossibilities believed each morning.

This really stuck with me. Usually when I see a theme or idea repeated, I pay attention. God usually is trying to tell me something.

See, I have an entire section of my mental prayer list that is labeled "Impossible." I pray for those things now and then, but it often seems futile.

You know, the situations: physical problems, economic problems, emotional problems. Things that look too big, too constant to ever change.

And people--the people who never change. People so deeply rooted in sinful lifestyles or broken behavior patterns that you've never seen any growth in them.

I know that speaks poorly of my faith. I know that "nothing is impossible for him who believes." And that nothing is too difficult for God. But this is one of those cases of believing something with my head, but not so much with my heart.

Time to get it into my heart.

So I've decided to start believing the impossible. I try to think of at least six each morning. And as I say, "Lord, I believe that you can change_____'s heart." I also say, "Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief."

Are you believing the impossible? Maybe you always have. Or maybe you're like me and have a little section of prayer requests that are labeled "Impossible."