Yesterday I was waiting in the car with Harry strapped into his carseat, and found a CD of Disney classic songs which I hoped (correctly) would pacify him. There were some crackers on the album (I’d forgotten how good Circle of Life is). Then all of a sudden a song began to play that made me do another double-take.

It was the song Age of Not Believing from the 1971 film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I vaguely remembered the song, but the lyrics hit me with immediate and poignant relevance:

When you rush around in hopeless circles
Searching everywhere for something true
You’re at the age of not believing
When all the “make believe” is through

When you set aside your childhood heroes
And your dreams are lost up on a shelf
You’re at the age of not believing
And worst of all you doubt yourself

You’re a castaway where no one hears you
On a barren isle in a lonely sea
Where did all the happy endings go?
Where can all the good times be?

You must face the age of not believing
Doubting everything you ever knew
Until at last you start believing
There’s something wonderful in you

I found myself oddly moved by this song, since it expresses so neatly some of my own doubts about my Christian faith – a rejection of anything ‘make-believe’, mixed with a longing for ‘happy endings’ and faith-filled companionship. But I was particularly struck by the last stanza. By this point in the song, I’d expected the wonderfully chipper Angela Lansbury to gently chide, ‘You must turn aside from not believing’. Instead, the song’s advice is that only by facing one’s doubts, and by allowing those doubts to truly run their course, can one find a sense of wonder in anything.