Moving With What You Have
By Melissa McGath | May 14, 2026
“All we had was our faith.”
She said it so candidly as she described her journey from leaving her homeland to follow the Lord’s calling to become a missionary.
I was sitting at our kitchen table over breakfast, hot coffee in hand, as Sarah and her husband shared their story with us. Twelve years ago, they left the Philippines to follow God’s call into a country where Christianity is not only a minority, it is a point of persecution. They left behind their adult children and all that was familiar to step into what God had laid on her husband’s heart, and eventually hers.
That short sentence has stayed with me. Because she said it in a way that made clear her faith was all she needed. And since then, the Lord has provided everything necessary for their mission.
Small Enough to Overlook
Just days after we hosted the missionary couple, my Bible reading landed in Mark 4: The parable of the mustard seed. A seed so small it would be easy to overlook, but as it grows, becomes greater than all the herbs, offering shelter under its branches. Jesus points to it as a picture of how the Kingdom grows. Not starting from something impressive, but from something that feels like barely enough.
The connection between the missionaries’ story and the mustard seed parable encouraged me. What looked small in their hands had become something much greater in God’s.
When Uncertainty Starts to Lead
Sitting with the beauty of that also challenged how I naturally think.
Many days, it feels like I’m carrying a lot more than just faith. There is never a shortage of things to do, people to serve, and outcomes to steward. And in seasons where the world around us feels uncertain, it’s easy to start leaning more heavily on what I can see than on the God I’m meant to trust.
Economic shifts and business challenges can shape how I think about the future. A client pauses. A deal takes longer than expected. The pipeline feels slower than it did before. Over time, more of my thoughts drift toward what could go wrong, and less toward all that God has already done and promises.
Moving Before Everything Makes Sense
Sarah and her husband didn’t step into their calling with guarantees. They stepped in with obedience. What they had didn’t look like much by most standards, but it was enough because it was placed in God’s hands.
That’s the part I want to embrace. They moved before everything made sense. They trusted God with what they had, even when it felt as small and insignificant as a mustard seed.
That same pull is real in leadership.
I’ve noticed how often I wait for something more before moving forward. But faith rarely grows that way. It grows when we’re willing to move with what we currently have.
This applies to the decisions right in front of me:
- Moving forward without having every answer.
- Saying yes to what God is prompting before the outcome is clear.
- Staying anchored in Him when things feel uncertain.
Jesus didn’t point to the mustard seed because it was impressive. He pointed to it because of what God does with something that small.
Faith is not the last resort. It’s the starting place.
—
If resources feel thin and the next step feels smaller than the moment demands, it may be worth asking: are you waiting for more when God is asking you to move forward with what you already have?
If this resonates, you’re not alone. You can find more reflections like this on the Voom Creative Insights blog.
“For who hath despised the day of small things?”
Zechariah 4:10