From time to time we...
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From time to time we encounter persons who have lived through great troubles. At times we look at those persons and say, "What great faith you must have, to have endured so much!" We admire them. We do not know how we could ever have faced what they faced. If we gush at them long enough about their great faith they will, more often than not, seem embarrassed and generally deny that there is anything special about their faith: "My faith is no greater than anyone else's -- I just didn't know what I had until I needed it." And they are right. They are not persons of greater faith. Greater patience, perhaps, or greater perseverance, or trust in the face of adversity, but not greater faith.
There is simply faith -- not greater, not lesser, simply faith: their faith, your faith, my faith. Faith the size of a grain of mustard seed. For I suspect that Jesus was saying that if we have even the smallest quantity of faith you can imagine -- faith as small as a grain of mustard seed -- the amount of faith that you or I or anyone might have, poor as we are in things like faith -- that smallest amount of faith will be enough. So why do we waste our time (as the apostles did) looking for more faith? We have all that we need to do the work God calls us to do.
There is simply faith -- not greater, not lesser, simply faith: their faith, your faith, my faith. Faith the size of a grain of mustard seed. For I suspect that Jesus was saying that if we have even the smallest quantity of faith you can imagine -- faith as small as a grain of mustard seed -- the amount of faith that you or I or anyone might have, poor as we are in things like faith -- that smallest amount of faith will be enough. So why do we waste our time (as the apostles did) looking for more faith? We have all that we need to do the work God calls us to do.
