Who Are We Kidding?

There is a story in the Bible of a man who brings his child to Jesus because he is suffering from epilepsy and was often found acting strangely. The disciples were not able to heal the child. Jesus heals the child instantly, assumed from the text, with little effort. The disciples, bewildered, wonder why they were not able to do the same thing. Jesus responds:

"Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

If I am wrong, please let me know, but I have not seen many mountains moving lately. I say that with sarcasm, but I also speak it as a truth pointing to my own failures of faith (hoping that others might realize this is a much broader problem).

Every day that I wake up, think about Jesus (if I think about Jesus) and genuinely believe all the things I've read, all the things I've thought, all the things I have come to "believe" - that in and of itself could be likened to a miracle - an impossible happening.

My faith is microscopic. It borders on non-existence. Have we any idea how small a grain of mustard seed is? And yet we trounce around as if our faith moves mountains - as if our own mental/spiritual might is rivaled only by God Himself?

Ladies and gentlemen, excuse me if I speak lies and dismiss them quickly if these words are false - our individual (and I would almost argue collective) faiths are not only fragile, they are miniscule. They are barely worth speaking of.

And I hope that is what Jesus was trying to get at. Faith moves mountains, but not our faith.

I imagine our faith is the tiny thread, barely visible, that keeps our soiled souls clinging onto this great Majesty we were blessed to perceive in the first place. As Christians, as believers, we must understand we are absolutely nothing without God. Nothing.

It bears repeating...nothing.

So let's concentrate a bit less on the measuring sticks of faithfulness, comparatively and retrospectively. It's already been settled. We're less than a grain of mustard seed.

But - so this post does not end on such a negative note. Let us all celebrate and relish in the hope that our justification with God hinges (and is validated) by such a small measure. Thank God we are expected so little of, yet gifted with so much.