August 10: Minuscule Faith

My Mom arrived yesterday for a ten-day visit. We are having a blast cooking together, catching up on family gossip, playing board games and just enjoying each other's company.

She just returned from an Alaskan cruise and I'm amazed as I look at the pictures of the place--the natural beauty is breath-taking, even through photographs.

I am very impressed with my mother. She went on a white-water rafting trip (and has a picture to prove it). Mom shooting the rapids!--I'm not just impressed, I'm envious. Not envy as in "one of the seven deadly sins" kind of envy, but envy in a Napolean Dynamite, "Luh-key" kind of way.

I would love to have been in that raft with her. She'll get me for telling this, but she' 65+ years old. What is so cool is that she was the youngest one in the boat!

They went into the Denali National Park and saw Mount McKinley. It was an amazing trip! The pictures of the mountain have got me thinking about faith this morning. As I looked at the photos of this impressive mountain I was reminded of the words of Jesus:

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

That's some faith! Faith strong enough to move mountains. But as I ponder this teaching of Jesus it becomes clear that it is not the size of your faith that matters, but the object of your faith. A person can have mountain-sized faith in the wrong things and live a life of frustration and struggle. Jesus said a mustard seed size faith is big enough if it is directed toward Him.

Faith is simply trusting. So now I'm pondering, "what is it I really trust in?" Honestly, far too often it is my own abilities, creativity and intellect. These are enough to handle some of the challenges in my life, but not the mountains--not the huge, immovable, impossible, life-altering challenges that sometimes arise.

Mustard seed-sized faith, trust, in Jesus can move the mountains in your life.

~ Father, help me to trust you, and believe you when you speak. Thanks for the reminder today that You are trustworthy, and there's no problem so big that you can't handle it. Amen.