I'm glad I caught this cold.

After I preached Sunday, I started feeling the early signs of a cold coming on. By Sunday night I was pretty wiped out (preaching always does that to me, anyway), and a full day driving/sitting/driving on Monday left me ready for an early bed time. 10 hours of sleep Monday night did me wonders, and I think I’ve turned the corner on this little cold. I do my best thinking in the shower. And this morning, as I pondered my cold, I thought about how small the cold virus is. In fact, check out this web site to get some perspective on size:

http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm

Those nasty little viruses aren’t very big, but they sure are powerful! Think about it, an organism that is just 20 nanometers in length (a pin head is about 1-1.5million nano meters, so you could fit 50-75,000 flu viruses on the head of a needle!) has the ability to knock out a 200lb, relatively healthy human being for a few days. It’s incredible. Those ugly little bugs got some “Wuh-pam!”* to them.

This got me thinking about something Jesus said: “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 impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

The reason that cold virus is so powerful is that it multiplies itself in the body. It’s not that one 20 nanometer virus does all the damage, it’s that one 20 nanometer virus multiplies to millions in the body. You see, that one virus (although rarely do you just inhale or kiss your way into one virus!), attacks your cells, sends in a new code that then produces more of the virus, that then attacks your cells that then produces more of the virus that then attacks your cells… It doesn’t take long for you to become a walking, talking virus dispenser.

You see, it’s not the size of the virus that does you in, it’s the power of multiplication that wipes you out.

I think that’s Jesus’ point about faith. It’s not the size of your faith that matters, it’s the size of your God that matters, and His ability to multiply your faith. It’s not that you and I inherently have enough faith to produce anything good in our lives, it’s that our God, no matter how “big” or “small” our faith is, multiplies it according to His power. Trusting God with your life is like putting your faith on steroids…but in a good way. (that analogy worked a lot better in my head.)

When Peter was in the boat and Jesus called him to walk on water, Peter didn’t have enough faith to do anything! As he hopped out of the boat and took a few steps, it wasn’t Peter’s faith that made the water suddenly firm. It was God’s power. Peter’s faith was the engine that got Peter out of the boat; God’s power firmed up the sea. Peter wasn’t believing in his own ability to walk on water, he was trusting God’s power to make it a reality. God multiplies our faith.

What is God asking you to do, today? How can you flex your faith and watch God multiply your efforts? I’m glad I picked up this cold over the weekend, it’s given me a great new perspective on God’s power to multiply change and Kingdom impact in my life.

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is always better on the water!

*Wuh-Pam: Condensing verb, adjective or adverb. Combination of the words "Whoopin" and "Slam". As in, "I handed you a whoopin and you went slam on the floor" can now be condensed to, "I Wuh-Pammed you to the floor." Can be used in past tense. Frequently used, and in fact invented, by my daughter BJ, and quickly spread through the family. Eg: "I was running into the kitchen and forgot to open the door. I hit it, 'Wuh-Pam' and fell on my rear end in the family room." Also can be used to suggest aggression: "AJ, if you touch my DS again, I will Wuh-Pam you into next week."