I struggle with the passage about faith moving mountains.

To be honest, I don't understand it. I mean, I understand it in a more figurative sense (the mountain is more of a symbol of some huge life struggle or something that faith in God helps you through) but Jesus said this after he (what I believe to be) very literally shriveled a fig tree. Jesus wanted figs. It didn't have figs, so Jesus zapped it.

What made me think of this was that I was just recently on a bus that ran out of gas with a lot of people on it. People prayed, and said in their prayers that faith would start the bus.

Now, if I'm to take that passage seriously about moving the mountain, certainly faith can start a bus. And, sure enough, the bust started... after some gas was put into it. And it made it up the hill that it pootered out on... after all the people filed off of it to lighten its load (granted, it was a pretty steep hill).

But while we were sitting on the bus, I had a pretty interesting exchange. Someone said something about how the bus would never start, and another person "rebuked" them. "Do not spread seeds of doubt! Say what you want to happen and it will happen." After a while, I made the comment that maybe we should be thankful that the bus stopped. I received a very uncomfortable look.

"What if we're being spared from a giant accident by being delayed? What if someone right now is learning something vital from this experience? What if this was supposed to happen?"

The said they'd never thought of it like that.

I guess I always thought of faith as being able to take peace in knowing that, no matter what is happening, I can come through it all the closer to Christ. Not necessarily because he helps me avoid things, but because he makes me learn from them. If that's the case, where the freak does tossing mountains into the ocean come in?

Although, the bus DID start. Hmmm...
posted by Stephen at 11:19 PM | |