Moving Big Walker

This article was published in the Anchor News January, 2004.

“Whoever shall say to this mountain, remove yourself and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes what he has said, it will surely come to pass.” Mark 11:13

There are so many juicy truths in this simple verse. First, “whoever shall say...” God is not capricious. He responds to faith, not personality or accolades. Second, if only we could fully understand the power of our spoken word, for good or for bad. Third, speak “to this mountain.” It is necessary to be specific. Faith does not work in generalities, but in specifics. If you are not specific, how will you know when the mountain is gone?

Fourth, we think in pictures; if we do not get the picture, we do not get the concept. Not only do you speak to the specific mountain, but you also picture it being removed and being drowned, never to rise again. Fifth, you do heart surgery and get rid of doubt. You give no place to the possibility of failure. Sixth, it will surely come to pass. Faith is not necessarily instant. Keep on eradicating doubt, keep on believing, and it will happen.

When Joshua scouted out the Promised Land, he found a specific mountain he wanted as his inheritance and said to Moses, “Give me this mountain.” (Joshua 14:12) It took time; it took crossing the Jordan River and fighting the enemy, but the mountain eventually became him.
I have a vivid imagination and I also like quick results. So in picturing this mountain being cast into the sea, I see the mountain come alive like a cartoon character, flutter her eyelashes, daintily heist her antebellum skirt, quickly tiptoe to the ocean edge, and dive in. My faith walk has proven that it does not happen that fast. Often the Scriptures proclaim, “In the fullness of time”.

I am from West Virginia. In the 60’s my father moved the family to Texas and each of the four siblings married a Texan. All of the mountains in West Virginia are scary to foreigners, but Big Walker is particularly ominous. It has become tradition that anytime we take a Texan back home for the first time, we intentionally go out of the way so we can traverse Big Walker.

Imagine my disappointment when I took my husband, and Big Walker was being reduced to more like a molehill. Traffic was delayed as we waited for mountain moving equipment to load trucks for excavation. It was not an easy mountain to cut down to size. It took over a year of construction, much dynamite, and many workers.

My picture of a quick-sprint-of-mountain-Olympics has been replaced with the Big-Walker- marathon. In the process my faith has grown tremendously, and my patience has greatly increased. In believing and waiting, I have developed a calm assurance that God really is in control, even though he allows me to participate in the miracle.

Moses told the Israelites what would await them when entering Canaan. It would be a slow conquest. The reason was so the Israelites would grow in number, in abilities, and in wisdom. If success comes too quickly, we can become cocky and useless. Too much self-confidence can be a liability. The wait time is developing character in us.

Perhaps that is the biggest mountain to move.