Many of you are familiar with the Disneyland ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride begins with a leisurely float through a calm blue bayou only to be interrupted by a talking skull who warns you of the perilous journey ahead and concludes with the haunting benediction that dead men tell no tales. I would argue that the book of James serves as a similar introduction to the Christian life. It begins by preparing us for the trials to come and then declares that if our faith isn’t living and breathing, then it is suitable only for burial at sea.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1: 2-3)

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2: 26)

What does it mean to be alive? If you were to come upon someone lying on the sidewalk, you would begin by looking for signs of life such as breathing and movement because without such outward clues you would conclude that the person was dead. Life is defined by movement; therefore, if our faith doesn’t move, we have to conclude that it is deceased. If our friends and neighbors have to hold a mirror up to our nose to see if our faith is breathing, then for all intents and purposes it is dead.

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor (I Dare You to Move – Switchfoot)

What is it that keeps us alive? Breathing. Interestingly, the Hebrew and Greek words for spirit can also mean breath. Our faith is alive only when it is animated by the breath of God and not the hot air of human pride.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only. (James 1: 22)

In the story of the rich young ruler, a pious wealthy man presents his religious resume to Jesus in the hope that the heavenly deal is sealed, but Jesus makes it clear to him that faith isn’t a completed checklist but rather a to-do list. Jesus doesn’t want the decaying archeological remains of our faith but rather evidence that it is living and breathing. The Holy Spirit shouldn’t be an air freshener for our faith-mobile but rather the wind that fills our sails and takes us to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. If faith isn’t evident by our outward behavior, then the Greatest Story Ever Told is never proclaimed because dead men tell no tales.

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash