move!

Matthew 17:19-21

This is the conclusion of the story about the man who wanted Jesus to heal his son. The disciples wanted to know why they couldn't cast the demon out and Jesus tells them that it was because they had so little faith. He explains in one of the more famous verses in the Bible: If you have faith as small as a grain of mustard, you can say to this mountain, "Move!" and it will move.
Again, this is a fairly harsh response: the mustard seed was very small. If I was one of the disciples, I wouldn't have been thinking, "What a nice picture! I can move mountains!" I would have been thinking, "All I need to move a mountain is that much faith? I can't even muster up that much..." I would have been ashamed, felt rebuked and maybe even a bit defensive at the harshness of Jesus' response. However, unlike Jesus' response to the father in the previous verses, I can at least understand Jesus' response here. He has been with his disciples for a while now and they should be able to have at least a mustard seed sized faith.
It is obvious that the faith the disciples lacked was in Christ himself. Perhaps they doubted their own ability but that misses the point. They aren't supposed to have faith in their own abilities. They are supposed to have faith that Christ can work through them. I have a tough time with this because I have been given good gifts and abilities. I know that they come from God and that they are completely dependent on God. I know that he could take them away at any time. However, the abilities God has given me in the areas of strategic planning sometimes make me more self-sufficient than Christ sufficient. If there's a mountain to be moved, I'm already figuring out how many bulldozers and earth movers we need and how much it's going to cost and how we're going to raise the money. Forget the mustard seed, bring on the earth movers!!
I don't think it's wrong to plan strategically but the danger comes when I take pride in my abilities (forgetting that they come from God in the first place) and I rely on my abilities without depending on God for his wisdom, direction and power.