Not So Hard

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, 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. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
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I have a terrible habit of dragging my feet about doing things I think are going to be hard and frustrating.  Instead of just jumping in and getting down to it, I procrastinate and make the whole thing seem big enough to swallow me.  I recently had to tackle a problem that required a consumer service department, an IT specialist and three computer downloads.  I had put it off for nearly a week before I made myself get to it.  As it turned out, the folks were very friendly, and the project wasn’t nearly as difficult or daunting as I thought it would be.  I felt pretty silly for wasting a week and making such a mountain out of a mole hill.  My faith in my ability to tackle the job was pretty small.  I truly made it a much bigger deal than it needed to be.  As I was thinking about it all the verse about the mustard seed popped into my mind and made me wonder how many times I made things harder than they needed to be.

God calls each of us to love Him and love each other.  His mission for us is pretty straightforward but we sure can complicate it can’t we!  We are each called to discipleship which means we are tasked with spreading the love and the story of Jesus and what He’s done in our lives.  Sometimes the Lord presents an opportunity to evangelize but we talk ourselves out of it.  We don’t tell the story of Jesus because we are afraid we’ll say the wrong thing or people will think we’re weird.  The truth is, we often overcomplicate the process completely.  I heard a visiting priest tell a story that was a great reminder of what God can do with our mustard seed of faith…and it isn’t as difficult as we think.

According to the priest, the story first appeared in the New Your Times and it was about seeing the love of Jesus at a Dunkin Donuts.  As the story goes, there was a long line of customers waiting and a woman began to speak out in a loud voice sharing her troubles.  Loudly she said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.  I don’t sleep, I can’t get well, everything is falling apart.”  Everyone heard her but everyone either looked down or glued their eyes to their phone.  The distraught woman looked around again and shared more of her fear and said, “I have no place to go, I have no family, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”  Again, everyone shifted nervously and looked anywhere but in her direction.  It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop when everyone noticed the sound of a tall, well dressed womans high heels walking toward the troubled lady.  She simply bought a cup of coffee and gave it to the woman then put her arm around her, walked her to her table and said, “Sister, sit down here and tell me your story.”  I don’t know that the well-dressed woman had all the answers or solutions but I’m not sure it mattered.  All it took was a two-dollar cup of coffee and one question to share Jesus and change a hurting persons life.  Her simple Christ-like compassion no doubt changed everything that day. 

That story has been sitting on my heart for a couple of weeks and once again I realized God isn’t asking us to be Scripture Scholars or Theology majors reciting facts and information…He’s asking us to simply share his love and notice His children.  One simple question, one simple act of connection offered because we’ve seen with His eyes can make all the difference to someone in a tough spot.  Who knows what that tiny seed of faith shown to a hurting woman that morning turned into...the Father knows and rest assured, He turned that little something into something marvelous.

A Seed To Plant:  Prayerfully make a decision to respond kindly in even a tiny way to one of God’s children this week.  Offer Him your mustard seed of faith and know He will do something great and it won’t be as difficult as you think.
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Blessings on your day!