Dreaming Big in 2012

We all have faith. Whether small or large, no matter the degree, we all have faith. We have faith that, in the morning, the sun will rise. We have faith that the moon won't suddenly decide to crash into the planet. We have faith that the laws of physics will remain in place. We have faith that our desk chair will hold us up. We have faith that God exists.

But sometimes, I wonder if we don't let that faith carry us through existence like a life-raft, and don't consider just what it is and how much it could be. We settle for the life-raft when we could have a yacht.

God has called us to a life of radical, life-changing faith. To demonstrate just what this faith implies, Jesus once told his disciples:

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

I'm sure we've all seen a mountain, if only in pictures. It's a majestic crag of rock, a piece of tectonic plate that got shoved up towards the sky. Mountains are the stuff of poetry, literature, and song. There's just something about them that inspires the human imagination. Perhaps it's the immutable nature of their existence. In any case, they're impressive.

Compare to that majesty a mustard seed. It's so tiny, it's practically insignificant. Yes, it has the potential to be something relatively great--at least, greater than it is--but it's completely unimpressive. The idea of this tiny seed being more powerful than a mountain must have provoked a few laughs from Jesus' listeners. They might have thought something like--first he goes on about camels passing through needle eyes, and now he's talking about a mustard seed moving a mountain!

But that was Jesus' whole point. Yes, it's laughable that a tiny mustard seed could move a mountain. And, in the midst of his parable, he was pointing out that it probably is laughable that a tiny bit of faith could carry a person through the toughest trials. We look at all our problems, no matter what they are, and then turn to God and say, "God, what's going on?" Sometimes, we get to looking at our mustard seed of faith and then at the mountain of our problems and we become hopeless. We wonder why God would give us so little faith to carry us through. So we're reduced to tears as we pray, hoping God will work a miracle.

But Jesus didn't want us to become hopeless as we consider the mustard seed-vs-mountain analogy. No, of course not. This was supposed to inspire, to build up. Jesus was saying that yes, your faith may be small. But it can change your life, and the lives of the people around you. You can move mountains through faith.

So, as we go into 2012, consider this: faith is life-changing. Faith is the most important thing. Don't be afraid to test it. Don't be afraid to dream big. God wants us to dream big! He wants us to attempt to move mountains, because he'll always be there to help us, to give us a hand. To answer our prayers and blow our minds. Give him a chance to do that this year.

This is a quasi-companion post to one I made on Teenage Musings.