Stretched faith

Matthew 17:20 And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly 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; and nothing will be impossible to you. 

Ahh the mustard seed illustration. As I've mentioned before, sometimes I see connections after thinking about things for a long time. I know the principle of brokenness applies to faith, and people of faith will struggle, but I never really understood the depth of the simile.

If one watches the process of a seed growing into a plant, one can imagine that if a seed had a nervous system, there would be a fair amount of pain involved. It struck me that this is indeed a vivid picture of faith. As a seed germinates and grows, the shell breaks open, the little shoot has to push up through the soil and it will die if it isn't watered or if the soil is too dry, or any number of other factors aren't in place.

Similarly in the growth of a child, there can be a lot of pain involved. It isn't constant, of course, but it is sometimes difficult to get through when it happens. I remember when I was young, I would wake at night with excruciating pain in my joints. My mom or dad would let me sit on their lap and would try to comfort me. It was horrible.

There are painful moments in our faith journey. Some more painful than others. In these times we need to seek the comfort of our Father. Not any earthly father, but the Heavenly Father. We need to be willing to let the Father help us through the tough times.

One way we can do this is to fall into the earthly arms of brothers and sisters in the faith. Fellowship is so important for dealing with the pain involved in the growth of faith. If we have no one to lean on, we will struggle all the more.

Faith is not a journey we can make alone. We need others to lend us their strength and comfort. Just like a rubberband, faith can only stretch so far before it breaks.