Growing up in my culture I heard the idiom fairly often; “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.”
I guess I had life bigger than my perspective, and obviously, quite a bit of it, either that or it became my parent’s easy answer from their proverbial grab bag.
During a great ‘God’ conversation with a good friend, it occurred to me this week that Jesus was trying to get us to look with perspective by using his teaching of a mustard seed and a mountain. (Matthew 17:20)
I haven’t yet seen a physical mountain move in my 56 years. I am also not aware of an account of it happening since Jesus walked and taught here. So, what was Jesus trying to get across? Was he just using a metaphor?
I think this particular teaching was all about perspective. He wanted us to catch his thoughts and his reference point.
In a day of sandals and dust, mountains were about the biggest things around. Conversely, mustered seeds were about the smallest.
When you have a minuscule amount of faith, huge things can happen.
But, our faith can’t be in faith alone. It’s not about what we can muster, and it’s not about us; we are not the subjects of its focus. It also is not about our faith coming up against this massive mountain because it is minuscule in comparison and it just wouldn’t matter.
Rather this teaching is where our faith gets placed. What is your faith trajectory? It has to be about our faith in God, who from his perspective could have the earth as the size of a mustard seed; from his universal vantage he doesn’t even see mountains as obstacles. These ‘obstacles,’ just don’t exist in his context.
So isn’t it about time that you make your mountain a molehill?
Mountains move when we see from God’s perspective.
You Don’t Have To Live; You get To!