Is Faith Measured in Seconds Still Faith?

Here’s the scenario: We have company in town. They’ve sold their house and need to buy a new house immediately, so they’re putting in some long days with a realtor.

“Let me make dinner for us tonight!” I said.

At 3:00 I put on my apron, ready to enjoy the slow process of preparing vegetables for a cozy bowl of soup on a freezing winter day. Cue text from our property manager.

“Your fridge at your house died,” she said. Sigh. “The renter has put the food out in the garage, but she’s worried it’s going to freeze.” (#montanaproblems)

It was okay. We had expected this old fridge to give up the ghost at any time. Matt put on his shoes, and we stepped into the artic winds to head to Lowe’s.

“You know,” I said, this study of Psalm 23 in Dallas Willard’s book is really helping me right now. In Life without Lack, Willard says, “Whatever we have or do not have makes no difference because we are with the one who will provide everything we need.” I told Matt how I was learning to lean on the idea that the Lord is my Shepherd, so I lack nothing, even the money for a new fridge. I felt peace inside.

In the store, we couldn’t remember the dimensions of our old fridge, so we went home to wait for measurements from our renters. We finally got a text with those numbers and headed back to Lowe’s to make the purchase. How am I ever going to get this soup on the stove, I thought. Stress.

About halfway from our house to the store, I put my hand on my chest because all of a sudden I couldn’t breathe. “We were just about to pay off the carpet next month,” I said. Matt looked over and saw my little baby panic attack rising.

“What happened to that sermon you were just preaching to yourself and how peaceful you were feeling a few minutes ago?” he said.

Sideways scathing looking.

“I guess I need to preach it to myself again,” I said.

Bible truth is like sunscreen at the beach. One application before getting in the water isn’t going to stick forever.

So I painstakingly said to myself, The Lord is my Shepherd. Even though we’re spending more money, there is no way that we lack anything when he is with us.

This takes me to what the apostles say to Jesus:

Increase our faith!”

He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”  (Luke 17:5-6 NIV)

I’ve heard, in lessons past, that a mustard seed is extremely small, but since we have smart watches with second hands, can we consider faith in seconds instead of physical size?

Christy believing Jesus to provide refrigerator money: 0.03 seconds.

Do you hear, though, Jesus saying what he can do with someone who will turn their face to him in faith for even 0.03 mustard seed seconds? You can say to this refrigerator, “Be uprooted from the appliance section and planted in our renters home.” Something like that.

So here’s the thing with faith: Have some, even if it’s just a smidge. And then do an inward call toward heaven, as I did on your way home from Lowe’s after dropping $850 on an appliance, “Increase my faith, Lord! Increase my faith!”

The soup was on the table on time, by the way, with help from the ladies. And we bowed our head and thanked Jesus for his provision of hot soup on a cold day.

A day in the life of the people of faith.

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