I’ve started listening to Mercy Me again after seeing the I Can Only Imagine movie. One song in particular has gotten me thinking. It’s called Even If and the words are ever so true. The chorus goes “I know you’re able and I know you can, save through the fire with your mighty hand, but even if you don’t, my hope is you alone.” If you’ve lived more than a day, there are things that have happened that don’t make sense. Your plans didn’t work out or the healing did not come. You might have asked the age old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”. Maybe you just haven’t been able to get your mind and heart around the fact that you prayed, you sought the Lord and put your trust in Him. However, the total opposite happened. Can God be trusted now? Well, that depends on who you know God to be. Do you know and trust in the one and only God? Do you believe in the God who not only created the entire world, every human, animal, plant and the list could go on? Do you trust in the God who loves you so much that He sent His Son to pay the price for your sin? After the death of His Son for us sinners, He brought Him back to life on the third day and then He took Him home. Does this sound like the God you know and trust?

The song continues, “They say it only takes a little faith to move a mountain. Well, good thing, a little faith is all I have right now. But God, when you choose to leave mountains  unmovable, give me the strength to be able to sing it is well with my soul”. This reminds me of the verse in Matthew 17 where Jesus says, “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you”. Have you ever seen the size of a mustard seed? One of my boys recently brought a small container of them to me. My husband had put some in a bottle to remind me to have faith, even a little. I shared with him this verse and said from what I understand, they can grow to like 15 feet. Doing a little more research showed me they can be anywhere from 6 to 30 feet! His response amazed me. He said, “I wonder what 1,000 seeds could do?”. What could 1,000 peoples faith planted together look like? Maybe you’ve been apart of a church, concert or conference and seen this first hand. It’s pretty powerful.

However, this doesn’t answer our question of what if that mountain does not move? The healing, provision, protection or whatever else you have asked the Lord in faith for, has not moved. Now what? I can give you a few examples here, but my story might not even come close to yours, but suffering is suffering to me.  Almost 7 years ago my mom died from cancer. Did we not pray enough? Was our faith not the right size? Did God not see this diagnosis coming? There’s more. For the past two Christmases , as we have celebrated the birth of baby Jesus, we have simultaneously mourned the death of two babies, miscarried before we ever got to meet them. How does this fit with the faithful, powerful, mountain moving God I believe in? Am I going to continue to trust Him after all of this? My honest answer, that comes with every bit of my heart, is simply yes. How can I not? Has He not been faithful to carry me close during these heartbreaking deaths? Absolutely! I have not a clue how anyone who doesn’t know the Lord even gets through a good day, much less a crushing, changes everything kind of day.  Goodness, I could type pages of scripture that the Lord led me to during the early days that followed. His love for me has never been louder than it was then. Do I understand? I really don’t, but I trust Him. I can say with certainty it is definitely well with my soul. It is well because I know the One who knows when to move mountains and when to leave them right where they are.