The Underestimated Power of Belief
Revisiting the Parable of the Mustard Seed
In 2011, my daughter and I traveled from Oregon to Kenya as short-term volunteer medical missionaries. Our adventure included nights spent camping on the African Savannah.
On one such night, some of us sat silently, our sleepy gazes drawn to the flickering flames of the campfire, recounting the day’s events, or thinking of loved ones back home. Others talked and laughed with each other on those same subjects, or swapped stories from prior adventures in Africa. In the darkness beyond the campfire’s glow, past the shadows of thorny trees and shrubs, barking baboons and whooping hyenas announced their presence. Above, the stars shone brighter and in greater numbers than back home, giving breadth and width to the universe that seemed to proclaim the insignificance of our relatively small group and our mission.
Our group of thirty-six from the United States, Kenya and South Korea had assembled to dedicate two weeks of our lives to serving the people of Maasailand, an area of Africa covering southwest Kenya and northwest Tanzania. We were physicians, dentists, nurses, and other professionals, and a dozen high school and junior high students. Through our efforts, nearly 1,500 people would receive general medical care, dental work, eyeglasses or treatment for wounds and fungal growths. However, the longer term medical and dental care needed by these people would be lacking. As I considered the small impact we would make on the lives of the Maasai, helping so few of them and for such a short time, for a moment I questioned the value of our efforts.
Small Beginnings
Then, I reflected on the story told to our group a few days before, at the outset of the mission. Our mission director, Gwen Edwards, took us back two decades to when she and her friend Jan Meharry met some Maasai women living near their home in a little village on the outskirts of Nairobi. These American and Maasai women didn’t speak each other’s tongue, but their ability to communicate through gestures and their love for their children created a common language that grew into friendship. The friendship grew into a literacy class and Bible studies that eventually led the Maasai women to Jesus Christ. In spring 1994, six Maasai friends of Gwen and Jan proclaimed their love of Jesus through baptism. Only a few years later a congregation of Seventh-day Adventist Christians arose among the Maasai.
In a world where billions of people cross paths daily, to casual observers the friendships that grew between Gwen and Jan and the Maasai women might have seemed trivial. Yet, those friendships formed in the shade of a tree planted the seed for several new congregations of Christians among the Maasai and gave birth to the Maasai Development Project (MDP). Today, MDP sponsors native Kenyans to work among the Maasai as adult literacy teachers and lay pastors. MDPs also partners with the government of Kenya to rescue girls and young women from polygamy and female circumcision that are still common among the Maasai and equip them with skills to use in building new lives free from abuse. What seems insignificant and of little consequence, God often uses to transform lives for eternity.
Planting Seeds
MDP organized the clinics being provided by our group to provide much needed health care to the Maasai. Our brief encounter with the Maasai was more than just a footnote or epilogue to Gwen and Jan’s story. We were planting new seeds that would build bridges between the Maasai community and the MDP literacy workers and lay pastors who assisted us at the clinics.
In one of his shortest parables, Jesus presented this profound principle that is repeated throughout the Bible:
“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches,’” (Matthew 13:31-32).
Wherever mustard seeds grow in the world, they sprout into a bush. One could hardly describe a mustard plant as a tree. Yet, Jesus uses this image of the smallest of seeds becoming the nesting tree for birds as a metaphor for His kingdom. What appears impossible in our version of reality is more than probable in Jesus’ version of reality.
The Power of Belief
When He walked on this world, even those closest to Jesus wrestled with this concept. His friend and follower Matthew wrote of the time he and the other disciples tried but failed to cast out a demon. This demon possessed a boy, threatening his life as it caused him to fall into fires and bodies of water. Dissatisfied with the disciples’ attempt to free the boy, the father went to Jesus. In a moment, Jesus rebuked the demon and freed the boy.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you,” (Matthew 17:19-20).
There is no record of people moving literal mountains by a simple act of faith. But, again, Jesus sought to point to the power of God to take something small by our standards and accomplish something unimaginable. This is the miracle of the mustard seed. This is the miracle of faith.
In God’s version of reality, there is faith and unbelief. There is no in-between. If you have even the smallest measure of the faith of Jesus, you have what’s needed to do great things for God’s kingdom. Great things often start small. What are you doing? Don’t overthink it. Don’t underestimate it. Empowered by belief, the potential impact of doing something instead of nothing is greater than you can imagine. Take the first step, and trust God to lead and equip you for the rest of the journey.