Fide

“Real faith is not the stuff dreams are made of; rather it is tough, practical and all together realistic. Faith sees the invisible but it does not see the nonexistent” (A.W.Tozer) Once a young man set out in conquering one of the highest mountains. This young man was renowned for his unshakable faith in God. He began his journey with tremendous amount of faith and with the will to conquer the mountain. It was evening and slowly he [Image]was nearing the peak and the zenith was visible to him. Slowly it became darker. He lost hope and at a point he lost his grip, the rope in his hands slipped of and he could feel the cool wind striking his ears. He realized he was falling from a great height and knew only God could help him. He called out God to help him and immediately he realized something got entangled, he was hanging in the air on the rope which tied on his waist. For a moment he was glad that he did not meet his end. He thanked God but had still something to worry about, as it was completely dark and he could no way guess the distance from the ground nor feel any part of the mountain. He was hanging in the air; the only hope was the rope. He called out God to save him and God said “if you have faith in me, cut the rope.” The young man was stunned and asked God, “Do you think I have gone mad, my only hope is the rope and you are asking me to cut”. God did not reply. There was a moment of silence and the man shouted out, “God please help me” and God replied, “Cut the rope.” The man could not resist his anger and he cursed God and renounced his faith. Next day morning the passers by noted a young man frozen to death at about six feet from the ground. What a faith? Can we compare our faith to this young man? What is faith? Is it something very vulnerable? How often do we lose our faith on God, parents, friends, siblings and most importantly ourselves? According to me Faith is an essential quality which has to be inbuilt in every youngster. Not just a blind faith but faith on the basis of reasoning. This reasoning should support the unshakable faith which has to be built. To find a person worthy of our faith is a difficult task in today’s world because we are of the attitude of “thoda chalega”- little is ok. Absence of this very faith is the cause of many problems in the society. Especially in the families, lack of faith of the children on their parents and vice versa, rupture the communication between parents and children. Doubt is a great modern plague. Faith will cure it. It won’t look at the circumstances or conditions but the promise. There was an incurable drunkard named Johnny who was regular in going to church. He would just walk till the door, just stand there stare at the altar, the cross. He would then turn back and go home. It was an almost daily affair. A priest, who had seen him do this for a while, wondered if he was a thief, inquired why he did this peculiar routine every day, and did not come in and pray. Johnny replied that he came to church everyday to say ‘Hi’ to Jesus. Everyday he would come to church stand at the door look at the cross and say ‘hello Jesus, this is Johnny here, I’m fine how are you?’. The priest sarcastically told him that God appreciates such faith. A few months later when the priest was visiting the sick in the local hospital, he met Johnny who was admitted there. He inquired about his health and then asked him casually about his visitors. Johnny very animatedly told that since he could not go to church very day to say hi to Jesus, Jesus had taken to visiting him every day and was due any moment today. Priest smiled sadly at Johnny’s condition. Suddenly looking at the door Johnny cried out aloud ‘hi Jesus, how are you today? I am feeling better today’. Trying to humor the sick man the priest turned towards the door. There stood a man, no ordinary man – he shone with holiness. And in his heart the priest knew it was Jesus. his simple and yet inspiring story brings to are mind that faith does not demand us great hilarious tasks but expects only simple things from us done with great love. The example of Johnny might appear as a very appealing fiction and far from reality. But faith is a divine virtue which can transform fiction to reality, impossible to possible. It is left to our individual choice to make use of this virtue and lead a joyous life rather than a life of doubt. This virtue has proved itself repeatedly in history. Its faith that made a lean, insignificant, half naked fakir to win freedom without restoring to violence for our country. Its faith that made Chanakya carve an Emperor out of a forsaken young lad - Chandra Gupta. Again it is faith that made Abraham Lincoln to go further rather than brooding over his failures. Volumes can be spoken about this four letter word but all these are of no use if we do not apply them in our life. So arise and let your faith be an inspiration for others as well. Faith can rewrite our future – “Think like a person of action and act like a person of faith.” Edited By Alban Jerome