What is Really Possible?

Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"

"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Mark 9: 21-23

“Everything is possible for him who believes.”

The more I hear this, the more I wonder… Is Jesus really serious here?

Ok here’s what I mean.

So yeah we know this idea of believing and receiving. We know that we need to believe in our dreams otherwise we won’t do the work that we need to do to make them happen.

This all makes sense.

But what about what Jesus actual says? Is life as simple as just having faith? We’ve seen Jesus wither trees, raise people from the dead, restore vision, heal the crippled, the leprous, the possessed…

But that’s what Jesus did. Cause after all Jesus was Jesus right?

But for some reason Jesus keeps on telling his disciples that they can do it too. And there was nothing special about them. They weren’t the result of an immaculate conception. Jesus asked them to follow him and they were the ones who said yes.

They were special by faith, but not for any other reason.

And Jesus sent them out and they did all kinds of miraculous healing too.

What if the message here is literal as well as symbolic? What if Jesus is saying that anything really is possible by faith?

Does that mean that if we had enough faith we could feed thousands with some loaves of bread and a couple of fish? What does that mean for world hunger? Does the solution lie in faith rather than genetic engineering, hormones, and economic policy?

Hopefully I didn’t lose you here.

I just find it fascinating that this is repeated over and over again in the Gospels by Jesus himself. It must be for a reason. Maybe we really are capable of so very much more than we think we are.

Food for thought…

Today’s Reading: Numbers 31-33; Mark 9: 1-29

God's Diet

Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. – Leviticus 11: 43-44

Over the past few years I have become fascinated by the rules governing clean and unclean food.

Sure I may joke about enjoying some bacon every now and then, but I think it is important to be critically aware of what we put into our bodies.

But why have such detailed rules about what can and cannot be eaten? Were these rules designed to keep the Israelites healthy? Or perhaps they were created to set them apart from the people they would encounter in the Promised Land.

I have no idea.

But there is something special about having a spiritually ordained diet to follow. It transforms something as commonplace as eating into a way of connecting to God.

In the Autobiography of Gandhi he talks extensively about his dietary experiments. He thought that it was important for him to eat in a way that positively related to the earth. He even went to the extreme of setting the goal to not eat anything that would result in the loss of life of another being.

Wow! He must have eaten a whole lot of nuts and berries.

I am not nearly that disciplined, nor do I have the desire to be. But there is something intriguing about it. Every single meal became a prayer of sorts; a way to pay homage to the living things around him.

I like that idea.

If we can learn to connect to God in the simple things of everyday life then perhaps we will start to live our lives a bit better. With this perspective even our most basic actions become choices.

And these choices remind us that we all have the power to spread love and life in the world.

Today's Reading: Leviticus 11-12; Matthew 26: 1-25