Serve mine with some mustard

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”  –Mark 9:24 (NIV)
 
This verse is from Mark’s account of an event that is also included in Matthew. A father with a demon-possessed son came to Jesus’ followers to see if his son could be healed. The apostles tried and failed to help the man. Jesus cast out the demon, and made a statement regarding the type of faith required to make a difference.
 
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 17:20b (NIV)
 
Often, it isn’t a question of whether I have faith, but whether my faith is strong enough to stand, and perhaps more importantly, whether I am placing my faith in the right thing. In the book of Esther, Mordecai learns of a plot to annihilate all the Jews in Persia. He seems confident that the plot will somehow be thwarted and comes up with a plan whereby the Jews may be spared, but it calls for his young cousin to incur a huge risk.
 
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?  –Esther 4:14 (NIV)
 
Esther agrees to go along with Modecai’s plan, but she doesn’t seem to share his confidence. In fact, her response almost suggests she is resigned to her fate, whatever that fate may be. But isn't that the definition of "mustard seed faith"? When all I can bring to the party is a doubting, wondering, questioning faith, and yet I choose to be obedient to what I hope/believe is my next right step, Jesus tells me that’s something God can work with. He did for Esther.
 
I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.  –Esther 4:16b (NIV)
 
In my experience as a Christian, I’ve not been asked to go out on a limb that could be sawed off in hopes of saving a race of people. No king ever threatened to feed me to lions or throw me into a fiery furnace if I didn’t renounce my Lord, though I know I have brothers and sisters around the world that face the modern-day equivalent of such threats.
 
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”  –Luke 17:5 (NIV)
 
That said, I sometimes find myself second-guessing how I should respond in the moment to particular people in particular situations. In those cases, I often end up taking the course that seems to make the most sense at the time and asking the Lord to clean up whatever mess I make in the process. Then I replay the encounter in my mind a thousand times, imagining what I woulda-coulda-shoulda done differently. These episodes don’t dominate my life, but that’s where my mind would live if I wasn’t confident in the Lord’s ability to redeem my failures. And if all that sounds a little “mustard-seedy”, well I guess I’m in good company.
 
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  –2Corinthians 12:9a (NIV)