Eating Mustard, Moving (to the) Mountains

I used to hate mustard and now I sort of think that it is a tasty addition to most sandwiches.  I know a girl from Mississippi who also hates mustard.  I'm pretty sure that she will never like it based on the fact that she gags when you start talking about the color yellow for too long.  While I'm not sure what it is about the spicy condiment that so displeases my southern friend, I don't think that she would tell you that it's because she hates how big the seeds are.  Everybody knows how little mustard seeds are because of that one time that Jesus tells his disciples, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."


First let me disclaim that I love this passage, and I love mustard and I REALLY love Jesus.  However, I think that maybe Gift and Bible and the rest of our feel good Christian culture has cliched the slam right out of this not-so-cutesy statement by the Son of God.  When we hear that Jesus has said that teeny-tiny faith can move mountains do we ever stop to ask why he has said it?  The disciples just had what I would call a FAIL moment.  They tried casting out the demon and they couldn't, so Jesus comes and does it by blinking and then the disciples ask him why they couldn't do it to which Jesus responds, "because of your little faith" and THEN comes the famous line wherein He explains that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed they could shift rock formations.  Whoa, run on sentence, but did you catch that?  They didn't even have faith the size of a mustard seed!  But Jesus, mustard seeds are TINY, how much LESS faith could you possibly have?!  SLAM.  Pretty sure the disciples couldn't have even moved a mustard seed if they'd picked it up with their fingers.  If their faith was smaller than a mustard seed they basically had no faith.  I don't have any faith either.  Slam, again.


I'm not interested in moving mountains - I think they're fine just where they are.  I am however, interested in moving to the mountains.  A few weeks ago I found out that the next two summers of my life are going to be spent in the Colorado rockies, leading high school kids out into the hills and teaching them about my BFWCTW (best friend who created the world).  I'm still pinching myself.  However, I think that I only enjoyed that moment for about five minutes.  See, It only took about a nano-second of that reality for silly less-than-a-mustard-seed me to start to ask,


"How will I pay for this?" 


"What will my family say?" 


"What will I be missing by not being here?"


"What was I thinking?"


What was I thinking?  No, what was I thinking even asking those questions?  Has not the Lord supplied all of my needs abundantly?  And how much more will he provide for me as I go to share HIS gospel!  As I sat through my medieval history class yesterday, clicking through rei.com, it's as if I heard Him say, "I know exactly what you need.  I know EXACTLY what you need.  I KNOW exactly what you need. I know exactly what YOU need!  I know exactly what you need.  I know exactly what you need."  God who promised is faithful and He is the one who has prepared this beautiful thing for me to do.  He is the one who has prepared this beautiful life for me to live.

"Nothing will be impossible for you."  This is so much bigger than how I spend my summers.  This is our lives in Christ Jesus.  Mine will be a life marked by a faith that starts small and grows into a sturdy and well rooted tree.  Praise God for watering that seed.