Concerning mustard seeds

I was hanging out in the Zolcolo with Matt Guynn the other day (yes, he's in Cuernavaca), and we got to talking about all sorts of amazing things. Such is the way of things when you hang out with Matt Guynn. Anyway, one point of particular interest for me was concerning the power of faith.

Many of us are familiar with Jesus saying that anyone with faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. We've heard of the Disciples performing miracles in His name. In particular, there is the story of Peter healing the crippled man outside the Temple. Do we believe these stories? Do we think they're allegorical? Or are we managing to find some tricky in-between area?

This conversation started when Matt told me of 0ne of his friends living in Africa. Late one night a man came banging on his door, and when he finally got up and opened it, the man said, "My mother is dying! Please come!" "What can I do?" asked the friend, to which the man replied, "You're a Christian, aren't you? Come heal her!"

What faith! Sometimes I am amazed by how the faith of those in Africa or Asia can make me feel like a child... or, more accurately, like an adult who's forgotten what it means to be a child. "What do you do in that situation?" I asked. Matt didn't know either. Eventually we arrived at the conclusion that the thing to say would be something like "I will come and pray, and if God wills it then she will be cured."

If God wills it. Is that an expression of wisdom or an excuse for a lack of faith? I put myself in that situation, and I feel like the unspoken rest of the statement would be "but we really know it's not going to happen." I can pray over her all I want, but do I actually expect her to be cured? I don't think so. That's a lack of faith. The whole "God's will" thing is just a dodge we do so we don't suffer the embarrassment of saying, "Get up and walk!" and having the woman look at us like we're idiots (also, remember that when a non-believer tried to heal in the name of Jesus, the demons beat him up).

It's tricky ground, because I wouldn't want to have the audacity to think I get to choose whether she gets better, either. The power isn't mine; it's God's. Maybe we just need to be open, to listen. Maybe God will say, "Okay, I'll heal her. Say the following..." and it will all be like a perfectly rehearsed performance. But maybe we're supposed to have more faith than that, and go out on a limb. And that idea has me, and everyone reading this, feeling really uncomfortable, because the fact is... we all really know nothing's going to happen.

What do you think?

Define God

I made a post along these lines of Facebook, but the feedback was extremely limited. So I appeal to you, the smaller but more motivated (maybe?) readership.I would like to collect short essays by Manchester College students and graduates answering the question, "who (or what) is God?" You can run in whatever direction you like with this question, talking about how you see God, how you communicate with God, what characteristics define God... how you answer is entirely up to you. And I'm not looking for any target group to respond; it's the diversity of faith that interests me, whether it be within the Church of the Brethren, throughout Christianity, in other religions or in the absence of religion altogether.

If you can find the time, I would love for you to write a short essay and e-mail it to me. If you don't have contact information for me, sending it to nmkauffman (at) manchester (dot) edu will suffice. Or, particularly if your answer is extremely short and you want to share it here, you could just comment on this entry. My ultimate goal is to collect enough of these essays to make a small book, which I will self-publish and give to the chapel and library (I can also have copies printed for anyone who wants their own).