Moving Mountains

The Bible tells us that if we have enough faith we can move mountains. I think that many of us envision a magical poof and the mountain is gone. After all, God can do anything, can’t He? We look at ourselves critically believing that we don’t have enough faith to move an anthill never mind a mountain. And who wants to move a stupid mountain anyway?


I see mountains being moved everyday in the lives of those around me. I see mountains being moved in the world around me. I see mountains being moved in my life. The mountains I see being moved are moving slowly. Sometimes only a shovel full of dirt at a time gets moved. Sometimes a huge machine swoops up its share. Sometimes, friends and family bring their shovels and help.

Moving a mountain is hard work and can seem almost impossible at times. We get overwhelmed as the daunting task looms over us. Yet, with our bit of faith we plod on, shovel full by heavy shovel full. It may take us a lifetime to accomplish but we persevere having the faith to believe that someday the mountain will be gone.

The mountains I see being moved are the mountains of addiction, mental illness, hatred, prejudice, poverty, abuse, violence, insecurity, handicap, ignorance, divorce, the list is long indeed. ALMOST ALL OF US HAVE A MOUNTAIN IN OUR OWN LIFE THAT WE ARE TRYING TO MOVE.

All of us know someone who is working hard on their mountain removal. We try to help each other all we can but the fact remains that most of the shoveling must be done by the person whose mountain it is. We can help one another but it is only as we struggle and sweat over our own digging that we call out for help from above. It is then that our faith as well as our backs are strengthened.

I don’t know about you but I think that it takes much more faith to remove our mountains one shovel full at a time. The “poof, there it goes”, idea might be appealing but it would be to tempting to let the mountain grow again. The struggle to remove the mountain bit by bit gives us the calluses that remind us of the work we did and don’t want to do again.

That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?