Sunday, January 11, 2009

Moving mountains

I've always been a very literal person. Figurative speech and parables are often lost on me. But I keep trying to think about things in a different way. What if "this" actually means something much different, much more?
While I was reading "Three Cups of Tea" I came across a passage mentioning that the author had been busy moving mountains on his own and it struck me- when the scriptures mention faith to move mountains maybe it's not referring to literally moving large mounds of dirt. What if God is saying that we need to have enough faith to remove the roadblocks that stand in our way? Our mountains may be depression, unemployment, discouragement, wayward children, fatigue, loneliness, or any other obstacle that is keeping us from experiencing joy and growth in this life. So maybe what we need to do is not seek to climb over these "mountains" on our own, but instead work to build our faith so that we can remove them, even if it's by blasting away a little at a time. If we can just believe God can make it possible. What an encouraging and hopeful thought!

5 comments:

Louann and Bari said...

I've often thought of the 'moving mountains' example, but have not always applied it to myself and specific trials I am facing.
Great blog.

Leslie said...

Thanks.

Mama D said...

Great insight! I will have to think about how to apply that on a personal level.

That drilling through the mountain is a long, slow process... I think sometimes HF wants us to do that and other times He wants us to climb up and over the mountain instead of going through it. The key is knowing what He wants us to do in a particular situation.

Steve and Jamie said...

Thanks for the email. It made my day a little brighter. I really enjoyed this post--sometimes it's hard to keep moving those mountains. I guess I'll just keep blasting away.

Papa D said...

No surprise, but I'm going to echo Mama. Sometimes we really can move the mountains in our lives - and sometimes we can gain the strength to scale them and emerge on the other side while they remain where they are. Sometimes, he gives us an airplaine.

Sometimes the Lord helps us avoid situations; sometimes he helps us react differently than we would normally.

Mountains really are interesting things.