Faith

Matthew 17:20

And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

James 2:26

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

If you have faith that you can move a mountain, you can. Have you ever tried?

I guess I was just thinking about this for the first time the other day. For some reason in my mind I always thought the mustard seed metaphor meant that mountains would leap out of one's way if one had enough faith. But yesterday I finally made the connection between the two versus above, and it makes complete sense--if one has faith in them self that they can accomplish anything--within the realm of this world, meaning not with magic, but their own God-given powers, one can literally and/or physically move mountains. It really doesn't make sense to go around moving mountains, but we can make so much of a difference in this world if we think we can. And in the past, when the question of faith has come up, Grace and I have always said, "Our faith is on the microscopic level." But now that I think about it this way, I feel that sometimes my faith is larger--I feel like I can take on the world's problems, but of course, other times, more like now, I feel like I'm doing nothing to contribute to the betterment of the world, and that I might not ever be a missionary in Africa and change kids' lives. I might never be a world famous artist who makes people change the way they think about things. Right now I'm on the verge of wondering if I'll even give birth to great kids who will do amazing things. All I feel like I'm doing to trying to be kind. That's largely what my life has been here in Italy. I don't know if this is enough. Am I doing enough to serve God? Am I fulfilling my duty as a Christian? Could I be doing more?

I know I'm super aware of God and my faith right now. I can remember times when I've lapsed into complacency. But right now I'm aware. I'm aware that I'm not concentrating well during prayer. I'm aware that I'm trying. I'm aware that I'm listening. I'm aware that I could be listening alot more, and talking alot less.

But faith to move mountains? Okay, give me a shovel, and I'll start digging.