Ketchup, Mustard, and Faith

I don't know what that title really means.... but it made me laugh. So here it is. Ketchup, Mustard, and Faith please!

"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" 

- Mathew 17:19-20

But what does that mean? If you would've asked me just a few years ago what this parable meant, I would've said "if we have even just a smidge of faith, we can move mountains". But I hope that's not all that this story is telling us, because I claim to have faith but i ain't moving no mountains... so i must be a putz, right?

Turns out there is significance in the mustard seed. If it was just the size, he could have picked from thousands of things of similar or even smaller size. But the mustard seed is dynamic. It can grow from the tiniest of seeds into a huge tree.  

The Savior’s message is not just if you have a little faith you can do great things, but also - If your faith in Jesus Christ is active and vibrant.. if it grows and develops in you, like the mustard seed grows and develops into a tree, “nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

So what can you and I do to have faith like a mustard seed – active/dynamic faith in Jesus Christ that brings heavenly power into our lives?

Faith... the final Frontier? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When does faith begin? When you pray to know if its true? By living the law and following the commandments? No. Faith begins by hearing the word of God (romans 10:17). So we can't even start the process of faith until we open our ears. Think back to all those sacrament meetings we've tuned out over the years because the speaker was boring... sure, that speaker may struggle with delivering the message for a number of reasons, but we don't even give them a chance when we don't open our ears.

When we listen, you never know what could happen.

"In coming here, we forgot everything. . . .  But by the power of the Spirit, in the redemption of Christ, through obedience, we often catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul, which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home." - Joseph F. Smith

That space of time: when you decide to open your ears, when you decide to read the book of mormon, when you follow that prompting to reach out to someone.... that is "the Frontier". The frontier is when we are going to school, starting a career, or starting a family. It consists of questions such as:

“Does God really exist? Does He care?”

“Am I on the right path?”

“Why do I sometimes feel empty, overwhelmed, overlooked, or lonely?”

“Why hasn’t God intervened in my life?”

“Why didn’t He answer a prayer?”

“Why did He allow me to experience this sadness, illness, or tragedy?”

At the frontier we can’t see how it is going to work.  We don't know if or how it will benefit us. We can’t see how to do what lies before us.  We may not know what to do at all.  We don’t feel we have the ability to do it..

The frontier is where the Savior works. We face opposition and hard decisions, and we act in faith in Christ trusting that the Lord will open the way.  We pray for help, and then we go to work. Don't get overwhelmed by the large and difficult tasks in life. Commit to do the small and simple things brilliantly, and the big picture will take care of itself. Study the scriptures. Live the word of wisdom. Attend church. Pray with real intent. Pay tithes and offerings. Smile and say hi to those around you. Do these things even when you don't want to. They may seem small... but they are important. 

Believe.

The decision to believe in Christ is the most important choice we ever make. it shapes all our other decisions. Belief, testimony, faith... these are not passive principles. they do not just happen to us. Belief is something we choose - we hope for it, we work for it, and we sacrifice for it. We will not accidentally come to believe in the savior and his gospel any more than we will accidentally pray or pay tithing. We actively choose to believe, just like we choose to keep other commandments.

Your belief/testimony/faith will come as you make the best decisions you can, based on the information available to you, grounded in the values and principles of the gospel.

Because God has given you your agency, you can choose many directions to go and still lead a fulfilling life. Mortality is an open-ended, choose-your-own-adventure story. You have commandments, you have covenants, you have inspired prophetic counsel, and you have the gift of the Holy Ghost. That is more than enough to lead you to mortal happiness and eternal joy. Beyond that, don’t despair if you make some decisions that are less than perfect. That is how you learn. That’s part of the adventure!

- Ryan LaFaye