Faith. What is faith? Do you have it? What does your faith look like? Is your faith in the government? Faith in health care? Faith in science? Faith in God? Faith in your fellow human? Faith in yourself? Is it growing? Is it faltering?

Faith’s definition: “1) complete trust or confidence in someone or something. 2) strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.” It comes from Anglo-French feid, from Latin fidēs: trust, confidence.

Faith seems to be a state of mind rather than a position of action. I can have faith that the chair will hold me up but not until I sit in it and physically experience that it will not collapse under my weight, can I be sure and have complete confidence.

With all that we, both individually and as a people, have experienced thus far of the corona virus is a test of our faith. Do we have complete confidence in someone or something? Do we base our faith on spiritual apprehension- understanding or grasp- rather than proof?

Some days I feel that I have the strength to carry the world and at other times, I don’t have enough faith to get out of bed. Where I draw comfort is through the words of Jesus- he reminds his followers that all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed. When asked by his disciples, to increase their faith, the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” [Luke 17: 5,6]

A mustard seed is quite small. It is hard to believe that it would amount to anything, yet the mustard tree can grow to about 20 feet. It can germinate quickly. And it has so many properties- can be used for medicine, food, tools, etc. All of those analogies comfort me. They remind me that I do not have to begin on a faith journey with large expectations or plans- wondering about the overall goal or specific plans. I do not even have to worry about the growing conditions. I just have to be willing to put my small seed of faith into the fertile soil of the master gardner.

For me having faith is not so much in an idea or object or human but rather in a being- the divine. If I put whatever size faith I have into the one who has created the world, ideas, objects, people, then I can be assured that it will not be shaken.

And while trust is the action to the idea of faith, faith has to come first. Sometimes we have faith because we have seen the faith of others. Sometimes we have faith because we remember the past and the way things have worked out. And sometimes, we just have to jump right in. The “leap of faith”. There isn’t time to verify. Sometimes there is no rational explanation but just like falling in love, you know that without a shadow of doubt, He is worthy of our

In these times of crisis, I need to remember that all it takes is having faith as small as a mustard seed to get through it.

What about you? How is your faith? Needing to be cultivated? Growing? Spreading?

Tonight my Jewish friends will be celebrating Passover. A time of remembrance of the faithfulness of God.