Recently, while at the University of Minnesota men’s house, myself
and a group of friends stumbled across a movie on Netflix titled “Little Boy”. Intrigued by the caption and it’s 5-star
rating, we decided to give it a chance. (Quick
disclaim: it’s actually a pretty good movie and I recommend watching it. Also, the following may contain a few minor spoilers)
The movie follows the life of an 8-year-old boy whose father
has been deployed for World War II.
Little Boy, which is a nickname the boy earned growing up due to being
much shorter than his peers, had a great relationship with his father so his
deployment was a crushing blow as he had seemingly lost the only strong male
role model in his life.
After an encounter with a magician, Little Boy meets with a
local priest and mentions wanting his dad to come home and believing he has
been given the power to do so. The
priest, understandably concerned with the boy’s belief in real magic, attempts
to turn the table. Though he knows he cannot guarantee Little Boy’s father will
ever come home safely, he uses the situation as a teaching moment. After disproving any real magical abilities
on the boy’s part, the priest tells Little Boy that the power to bring his dad
home lies not in any physical abilities, but in his own heart. He references a passage from Mark’s gospel in
which Jesus tells his apostles: “Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this
mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his
heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.”
As a “call to action”, the priest also gives a list of things
Little Boy must do. What Little Boy
doesn’t know is that the list is actually the Corporal Works of Mercy. He sets out with full faith to finish the
list and, hopefully, bring his dad home.
Having had some time to reflect on the themes in “Little Boy”,
I keep being drawn back into the relationship between faith and obedience. Undoubtedly, most of us probably ask for an
increase in faith on a regular basis, but not necessarily for an increase in
obedience.
I think a succinct example of the interplay between the two
virtues can be found in Luke’s version of a similar story:
And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase
our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to [this] mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’
and it would obey you.” (Luke 17:5-6)
Why do you think it is that Jesus responded to the apostles
with such a challenge? Was it to call
them out for not having any
faith? Perhaps. But I like to think this is an implicit
mentioning of a relationship between faith and obedience. What Jesus is really saying is, “If you have
any faith at all, you need only to respond with that faith and be obedient to an action.” That action doesn’t need to move a
mountain. It is the mere interplay of
faith and obedience that allows one to “do all things through Christ” (Philippians
4:13). God can give us all the faith in
the world, but if we aren’t obedient in responding through action, there may be little He can do to change our situation.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve faced hardship in my
own life and turned to prayer because I didn’t know what to do. The scene usually plays out with me begging
God to just help me trust Him. “Father,
give me the faith to trust that you are in control”, I pray. After listening to my pleas, He then gently
whispers, “It’s not that you lack faith, but that you lack the obedience to
take the next step. You already know
what that step is. Now go do it.”
(Just as an aside, I do believe we can always pray for
increase in faith. The point I hope to
make is only that too often we think something isn’t happening because we lack the
faith necessary for God to do it when, in reality, we have a part to play as
well that is an extension of prayer and the faith developed during the process.)
This summer has been a perfect example of the aforementioned
scenario. I’ve accepted a position as a
full-time missionary which means I have the opportunity to raise my own salary
by inviting people to partner in my mission.
It’s an incredible blessing, but also one of the hardest things I’ve
ever had to do. One day might be highly
encouraging and the next I’m suddenly feeling forsaken and hopeless.
Most mornings start out with a mindset of “I can’t do this.” I hopelessly pour over the numbers and
realize I’ve still got work to do. I can
feel the walls crumbling in around me, my faith is waning, and I begin to
believe I need to just give up. I plead
for God to grant some miracle that gets me to my goal and makes life rosy
again. Then that gentle whisper comes
back: “It’s not that you lack faith, but that you lack the obedience to take the
next step. You already know what that
step is. Now go do it.”
The next step means getting on the phone with people – some I
know and some I’ve never met – to set up appointments. It means meeting face-to-face and asking
someone to join my team for a specific amount, zipping my lip, and waiting an
eternity for a response. In many cases,
it’s what I was hoping to hear. In other
cases, it’s not. One thing of which I am
confident, however, is that God pours out his blessings one hundredfold compared
to the amount of investment I put into the work if I will only take the next small step.
The process requires obedience and faith. I must do the next thing God wants me to do
out of obedience and with the faith to believe that “what he has promised, he also [can]
do” (Romans 4:21).
If you’re facing a mountain right now, believe what Jesus
told his apostles. With faith the size
of a mustard seed, that mountain can be moved; not by your own strength, but
because the combination of faith and obedience prepares a way for God’s grace
to work through you. To cooperate with
God’s grace, we need to trust and we need to take action.
