Youth Pastor, Ken Davis, has a way of discovering whether someone actually does have faith. In his book "How To Speak To Youth" he tells of a college lesson he had to prepare for his speech class. He says, we were to be graded on our creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. The title of my talk, he says, was, "The Law of the Pendulum." I spent 20 minutes carefully teaching the physical principle that governs a swinging pendulum. The law of the pendulum is: A pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released. Because of friction and gravity, when the pendulum returns, it will fall short of its original release point. Each time it swings it makes less and less of an arc, until finally it is at rest. This point of rest is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.

He then attached a 3-foot string to a child's toy top and secured it to the top of the blackboard with a thumbtack. He pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where he let it go. Each time it swung back a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When he finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard had proved his thesis. He says, I then asked how many people in the room BELIEVED the law of the pendulum was true. All of my classmates raised their hands, so did the teacher. He started to walk to the front of the room thinking the class was over. In reality it had just begun. Hanging from the steel ceiling beams in the middle of the room he had fashioned a large, crude but functional pendulum (250 pounds of metal weights tied to four strands of 500-pound test parachute cord.).

He then invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with the back of his head against a cement wall. He brought the 250 pounds of metal up to his nose. Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from his face. Once again he explained the law of the pendulum to the teacher who had applauded only moments before, "If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger." After that final restatement of this law, he looked him in the eye and asked, "Sir, do you believe this law is true?" There was a long pause. Huge beads of sweat formed on the teacher's upper lip and then weakly he nodded and whispered, "Yes." He released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back. Ken Davis said he never saw a man move so fast in my life. He literally dived from the table. Deftly stepping around the still-swinging pendulum, Ken asked the class, "Does he believe in the law of the pendulum?"

The students resounding response was, "NO!"

A SHORTER VERSION OF THIS ILLUSTRATION:

The physics professor had just finished his lecture about the pendulum, wherein he had shown the mathematical proof that an untouched pendulum will always swing in ever-decreasing arcs.

He then asked for a volunteer to demonstrate this fact by standing against a wall with a pendulum bob against his chin, then releasing the bob and allowing the pendulum to swing naturally through its arc. The professor reminded the class that the bob would return almost to, but not quite touching, the chin. No one volunteered. Although the science students “believed” that this law of physics was true, they were unwilling to put it to the test.

How like many of us in our relationship with God! We know the facts, but are unwilling to risk a step of faith based on them.