I Dreamt That My Entire Desk Was Clean

For truly, I say to you,
if you have faith as a
          grain of mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
"Move from here to there,"
and it will move;
and nothing will be impossible to you.

                     Matthew 17.20

I took that verse with me into my day, thinking about the words of Jesus and what they mean to me.  What impossibilities do I face?  What sheer cliffs terrify me?  What is so overwhelming that I feel paralyzed?

With those thoughts rambling through my brain, I climbed our stairs to the little attic workroom where I write on an old scratched dining room table that serves as my desk. When I pushed aside some papers to set down the computer, I noticed the smiling face of a woman on the front of a file folder, and it stated in colorful bold letters:  "I dreamt that my entire desk was clean."  

Faith to move mountains?  Well, the pile of papers on my desk would be a good place to start. I was confronted by a small hill of excuses, mounds of great intentions, and a lot of good ideas never engaged.  Over time, papers and projects have accumulated into a man-made mountain range.  I have no one to blame but myself.  There is a sledding hill in the area where I grew up, nick-named Mount Trashmore, as it was ingeniously created from years of trash gathered in one place.  I hope the pile of papers on my desk does not follow suit.

How many "mountains" do I face that are of my own making? 

I don't deserve any help, but that is where God's grace comes in.  I can ungraciously pray "God, get rid of this problem," or I can fall on my knees and pray "Help me, LORD."  Indeed, His deliverance may not be plucking me out of the trouble I'm in.  It may be His will for me to work my way through a difficulty in order to realize His mighty hand, or navigate me around as a means of changing my course, or grant me the strength to conquer this mountain -- whatever it may be -- this fearful imposing edifice, once and for all.

A long time ago, I wrote in my journal, "One does not feel the victory of scaling the heights, unless he has a mountain to climb."  I have hiked in the mountains, sweated up trails laid out by those who have gone before me, felt the burn in my legs as the elevation rises, and wondered how much farther I have yet to go, surely the end is around the next bend in the trail.  Those doubts, fears, and pain evaporate into thin air when I reach the top.  I have no words to describe the beauty.

God can move my mountains.  He specializes in impossible situations, so that I know that He is the LORD God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, Lover of my soul.   I need not stand before them alone.  He grants me wisdom and strength.  And He may use me to move them.

"Ain't no mountain high enough," sang Diana Ross in the 1960s.

Indeed.