Hab. 1:2-3; 2:2-4
2 Tm. 1:6-8, 13-14
Lk. 17:5-10

In Search of the Mustard Seed
This past month I have had the opportunity to learn about God’s faithfulness and about the “spirit of power and love and self-control” that God has bestowed upon me. I have been on an adventure trying to find the best way to make a bridge between being laid off and finding the best way to live my call as a chaplain. The bridge gave me an opportunity to make money, but not live life.

At the end of this work adventure I spent time with a friend looking back over the month and seeking hindsight. My spirit felt run over by an excessive amount of work with very little play…it was only with time and a friend who knew me well that I was able to again remember that place in the core of me where, the “spirit of power and love and self-control” was bestowed upon me.

In the gospel of October 7th, Jesus reminds his disciples about the power of faith that is the size of a mustard seed and what it can do. Sometimes it takes getting off the path to find it; it takes blindness to see with greater clarity…it takes finding a mustard seed in one’s shoe to know its power to influence.

The question perhaps for each of us is how do we hold in our hands with honesty opportunities that take us away from living life from a vantage point of faith of a mustard seed? How do we access choices that feed our culture’s drive for money, but in essence take us far away from our deepest and most intimate riches? Aware of the impact of this past month I am standing consciously in this place. However, it does not always take an extraordinary experience to bring us to this point. There is a multitude of daily experiences that can edge us away from that inner place, “the spirit of power and love and self-control,” given to us from a God of abundance who says always to us, “You are enough.”

Dare we trust the mustard seed this week and live the invitation of faith in new ways.

Beloved:
I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.

Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.