How to Move a Mountain

A church I know of needed a high mound behind the building moved so that they could use the space as a car park. The pastor declared a ‘Move-the-Mountain Sunday’, a concerted effort of prayer during the morning service. Alas, on Monday morning, the mound of earth was still there. However, also there, at the church door, stood an official from the highway department. ‘We need thousands of tons of earth for a road project,’ he told the church staff. ‘We were wondering if we could remove part of the mound from behind your church.’

The moral of the story is that God will help us do what we can do. In scripture, we see God and humans cooperating to perform miracles. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he asked the bystanders first to move the rock sealing the tomb and then to help Lazarus take off his grave clothes (John 11:39, 44). In Mark 2:1-5, the friends of a lame man couldn’t heal him, but they did what they could do: they removed part of the roof and lowered him in front of Jesus. When Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes, the disciples distributed the food and collected the leftovers (Matthew 14:19-21).

Each of us will face a mountain at some time or another. In these times, rather than moving a mountain for us, God may provide a shovel-or the highway department!

Prayer: Dear God of miracles, show us what part we can play for you to ‘move mountains’ in our lives. Amen