Little Faith . . . Its not about the size

The key that turns the door on your hopes, dreams, your circumstances is faith.  Faith is the key that helps us do the impossible.

“Oh you of little faith. . . 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.”

Nice saying huh? That’s why “just believe” and spirituality in general, even Disney like “Peter Pan” faith, “think a happy thought and you can fly” is so powerful today.  Jesus affirms the power of faith.  Unfortunately, not all faith is created equal. We know this in our heads on a practical level. Still, our wounded and wanting hearts will bounce us back and forth between believing in anything/everything because we so desperately need to be hopeful, and believing in nothing because we are afraid to be hurt and disappointed again.

Everyday we have faith the person in the car going the other direction will not cross the line. Everyday someone violates the trust, crosses the line, people are damaged, people die.  Everyday we put faith in someone we think we can trust. Everyday people violate that trust, someone is abused, abducted, betrayed, left on the side of the road for dead.

Faith is only as good as its object. Let that sinking in, let it stay with you today; “My faith is only as good as what I trust in.” Peter Pan faith is a spin off of true faith. We call it “make believe.” We are suppose to know the difference between make believe and reality, but when it comes to faith people cross the line everyday.

Make believe comes from our inner most desires, desires to be connected to something greater, to know something more, to know life beyond what we can see and feel. True or well placed faith, the kind of faith Jesus is talking is a faith connected to our Heavenly Father. For Jesus, faith is worthy faith when invested in the only One who is wholly faithful, the One who is constant, loving, trustworthy and best of all yearning for connection with you.

Faith is not some kind of trick formula for living. Faith is more than positive thinking or a universal hope in goodness. The universe we see and touch is mixed with darkness and injustice. The universal spirit, think good things and good things come to you is not justified by the life most people experience. Pardon my opinion but that is a wishful thinking escapist formula for people who don’t want to or find it too painful/risky look at the reality of life and have no more valid way to live beyond it than Peter Pan’s happy thought. (I love Peter Pan by the way!)  Happy happy happy.

Faith is only as good at its object. I love happy thoughts. I want happy thoughts all around the world. But what does that really change?  Faith is only as good as its object. Even Peter’s happy thought didn’t last long outside Neverland’s world of make believe.

I have on my desk a purple swatch of cloth from a shall I say a “bogus Christian” group sends to prospective dupes in the mail. They promise if I sleep on it tonight and send them money God will break the financial curse on my life and wealth will come my way!  Do you believe that? Come on, where is your faith?

I got an email yesterday one of my friends whom I would think would be wiser sent me. It promises if I send it to 10 people with its happy thought good things will come my way? Do you believe that? Oh, isn’t all faith equal? Don’t be so judgmental. You are being offensive to the email faith group!

Something in us wants to believe the fairy tale. That God given void, desire, need is why we get all this junk mail forwarded to us. Somebody put enough the faith in it to forward it! A real person actually sent that stuff to you hoping, believing, faithing that the collective good will would come back to them with dividends.

If what you have trusted in has proved itself worthy I am sorry, really. It is disappointing if not damaging. If what/who you trust in, is unfaithful or is simply made up, that faith will get you over some speed bumps now and then. But that faith will finally leave you stranded running on empty on a rough road over the long haul. One day you will be found on the side of the road writhing in pain, but if you are still in faith/denial you will be looking for that make believe happy thought to get you beyond reality. We know this will happen. We know this from experience. Still we make silly feel good decisions, we trust our happy thought provider, we forward the email, we do the religious ritual disconnected from an object of faith worthy of our faith.

Jesus’ disciples fell into the same hole. It was in this faith disappointment where Jesus says to them, “Oh you of little faith. . . 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.” They had failed to do what they had done before. Why? They wanted to know. “We did the faith stuff, we expected healing, we did what we did before.”

Jesus’ answer is about their faith. They were treating faith like magic, like a happy thought. But faith is only as good as its object. Faith is not the same as a happy thought. The disciple’s faith was in their faith. It was faith in faith, but not connected with the One their faith should have been in. Faith in faith is a happy thought.

The disciple’s happy thought was not going to heal, God is the One who heals. Their faith belonged in the God who heals, the God who is fully faithful and loving. Not because I hope for it, or want to believe it, or fully believe it, because His faithfulness and love for you and me is demonstrated at the cross. I know I can trust a God who at great cost to Himself does whatever it take to show He believes in me, wants a healthy and whole relationship with me and promises to love me today and through time beyond all time.

In the Bible and in life people see what happens when God is faithful and they copy the behavior. Faith is learned, copied, imitated.  Faith has relative value. Where have you trusted and been hurt? Where have you trusted and been rewarded? God is faithful all the time.

If you have faith even the size of a mustard seed . . . rightly placed, “nothing would be impossible for you.”  What seems impossible to you? To me, its that kind of love from God that seems impossible. God help my unbelief, stop my wandering heart at your door, at the cross of your faithfulness. I want faith not in wishful thinking, but faith that will not disappoint, that will not leave me again, writhing in pain on the roadside. Deliver me from the appearance of faith that I have learned to imitate, and help me to know You in my pain, my pleasures, my successes and my impossibilities today.

Paul affirms our rightly placed hope; We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. 4 And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. 5 And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. 6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Rom 5:3-6 (NLT)