Article June 12, 2006 Issue

A mustard seed is enough

BY RICHARD BERGENHEIM

There are times when we fall into the trap of thinking about everything negatively. We put ourselves down, feel little hope. No matter what is going on, we imagine the worst. (Well, you probably never do this, but sad to say, it happens to me sometimes.)

When a person is in this frame of mind, the very ideas that would normally offer deliverance from distress seem to turn around and become sources of torment. What do I mean by this? I remember praying earnestly some time ago because I was feeling very ill. My prayers didn't seem to be having any effect. While I was praying, a comment made by Christ Jesus came to thought: "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" (Matt. 17:20). This is a hopeful message. But rather than seeing this as encouragement, I turned it upside down. Looking at the lack of results from my praying, I concluded that my faith must be too small, too weak—not even as big as that mustard seed. Of course that made a gloomy picture even gloomier.

Paul the Apostle said, according to the Bible, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). And what I was going through describes that so-called mind at work. It strives to suggest through dark thoughts that we are no longer connected to God, the source of all good, health, intelligence, strength. Every suggestion that we are inadequate, unloved, poor, sick, unwanted—all depressing thoughts—come from this source. Such mortal thoughts work as wedges in our consciousness to suggest that we are no longer benefiting from our connection to God, or are unworthy of God's care, or that God is not there for us. They strive to create a rift between ourselves and divine Love, the source of our good.