Extreme Landscaping, Jesus-Style

A story from Matthew: 

When [Jesus and His disciples] came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
 
“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, 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.” (Matthew17: 14-20)

I'll be honest: I've never really been sure what to think of all this mountain-moving business. I've never really tried it. For one thing, it seems like it'd be awfully inconvenient for everyone else to have a major geological feature just sort of get up and go someplace else. 

Of course, the mountains that actually matter are another thing entirely. Mountains in my life. Whether those mountains are financial, or personal, or spiritual, or whatever they are, the real question is: have I told those mountains to move? And have they?

The important thing I often overlook about this idea -- that I can move the mountains in my life -- is that it can be very easy to mistake that whole "faith" thing, whether deliberately or unconsciously, as having faith in one's self. 

As a matter of fact, if you look closer, Jesus isn't even saying I can move those mountains. He is saying I can tell it to move, and it will do so -- but the power to make such a movement possible isn't mine. The real issue of faith is acknowledging that it is God who supplies the power and authority over the Heavens and the Earth, and that we are vessels for His Will, if and when we act in His Spirit.  

It isn't me who moves mountains, and it isn't you. It is faith in the God who created those mountains. If God wants those mountains moved, and if I have the faith to be the instrument He chooses, those mountains will move when I tell them to.

Even the ones in my own life.