Dr. Robert Schuller told the story of a Ph. D. student in mathematics who was going to take his final test for his PhD.  Unfortunately, the student arrived late for that test. Everybody else in the classroom had already started the test. On the blackboard were three math problems. The late student sat down immediately to do them. He worked feverously for an hour and a half but everybody else had finished the test and left. He felt to himself, "What an idiot I am, for I am the last one here taking the test. I must be MUCH slower than any other students in this class." He had finished only two problems and he knew that he was going to flunk his math test. You can't leave a third of the test unanswered and not flunk. He was very upset. He came up to the professor and said, "Professor, I didn't finish the last problem. Would you please let me finish the third problem and bring it into you later tonight? Please, I'll get the third problem done and bring it to you." The professor said that was permissible. The math student turned in to his math professor the calculations for the two problems and went to work on that third problem. He worked all afternoon. He worked into the night. He worked until 11:00 that night and he finally finished the third math problem. He rushed it over the math professor's office which, of course, was closed. He slipped the test of the third math problem underneath the door and went home exhausted. Early the next morning, his telephone rang and it was his professor who excitedly said to him, "Young man, you are a genius. You are brighter than bright. I have never seen anything like it." The young man said, "What do you mean?" The professor responded, "The first two problems on the board were the test. The third problem was a mind teaser. I have never had a student EVER finish that problem. No student of mine has ever gotten that right. You have done something that no other student has ever done before."

The student had come in late to the test and never heard that the third problem was impossible to solve. He never heard that it was a mind teaser, an impossible challenge. 

The power of believing.  If you believe that the pill can cure you, it can really help. If you believe that you can really solve a very difficult problem, chances are increased that you can solve it. There is a power to faith. We all know that. We all experience that in our daily lives. We read all kinds of signs that simply say, "Believe." We know the power of belief.