Smallness is the opposite of bigness.  At some point in time, we notice our smallness and lately I have been feeling the smallness of life.  Maybe you can relate?

This year I will celebrate a big birthday.  It’s an age where people talk about their approaching retirement and their dreams for those retirement years.  As they look forward to the future, they also reflect over those years of employment and accomplishments.  This process has me feeling kind of small.

I have accomplished some things for sure.  I have a wonderful husband, 6 children, and a grandson and they are the center of my life.  If I have done anything good, I hope and pray it has been in their lives and with them.  I hope and pray the same for my family of origin; my dad, siblings, niece, and nephew.

But reality is setting in: I have way less time in front of me than behind me and I wonder, how have I changed the world for the better?  There are very few Mother Teresa’s, Malala’s, Martin Luther King Jr’s, Mary Oliver’s, C.S. Lewis’, Maya Angelou, Bill Gates…  We’ve lived in several parsonages and our goal has always been to leave the house better than we found it.  So, I wonder how have I left this world better than I’ve found it?  How have I lived into my hopes and dreams?  While I wrestle with those questions, I want to share a story with you.

Robbie Ray suffered a heart attack in her retirement.  That event led her to reflect upon these same questions.  What have I accomplished?  How have I made a difference?  Maybe we could say she was wrestling with smallness.  And then she had an idea.  Whenever there was a church pot luck, Robbie always made a pound cake, and everyone wanted a piece.  She decided to bake pound cakes and sell them for $10 with all the proceeds going to the youth group.  The cost of making the pound cake would come from her retirement income.

I do not know how many years Robbie baked cakes and gave money to the youth group.  But I do know she wore a hole in more than one cake pan.  I do know that some days she would get up very early to bake cakes one at a time in her oven because they didn’t come out as well if she baked 2 at one time.  I do know that while my youth group was sleeping on the floor of churches for free when we traveled, Robbie’s youth group was staying in hotels because of her cakes.  I do know the total dollars given at Robbie’s retirement from baking pound cakes: $100,000.00.  You read that right.  Robbie gave a total of a $100,000.00 to her church’s youth group.  All of this done in her retirement years one $10 cake at a time.

A boy possessed by a demon caused him to have seizures.  His father brought him to the disciples, but they were unable to heal him, so the father brought his son to Jesus.  He rebuked the demon and the boy was healed.  The disciples wanted to know why there were unable to drive out the demon.  Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

It only takes the tiniest of faith to change the world like Teresa, Malala, Martin, Maya, C.S., Mary, Bill, and so many more have done.  It only takes the tiniest of faith and an idea to give so generously to a youth group.  It only takes the tiniest faith to move a mountain – even if there is more life behind you than in front of you.

Some days I can see the mountains that need to be moved to become more fully who God desires me to be.  I can see the mountains that need to be moved to live into my hopes and dreams.  I can see the mountains that need to be moved so I can change the piece of world where I live.  I might not know how to move them, but I do have the tiniest of faith in the one who does.  And with that, I know I can move those mountains with Christ’s saving grace and God’s power.

Maybe you have some mountains that need moving in your life.  Mountains can seem so big compared to the tiniest seed of faith.  But I believe we can do this.  Our Savior assures us we have the power to move them.  It may be hard to believe it and to see it, but if Robbie Ray can bake cakes and pave the way for young people to follow Christ, then maybe, just maybe, we can find the faith to move another mountain.