Faith can move mountains
By Taru Bahl

JESUS said, "if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say this to the mountain, ‘move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing then shall be impossible for you". This may be ridiculed by the cynic non-believer who strongly feels that destiny is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice. Not for him illogical blind faith to work miracles. He relies on his gut feeling, talent and go-getter’s spirit which maximises every opportunity. But even he is dumbfounded when he sees the amazing recovery of a person who has been declared clinically dead or the resurrection of fortunes of someone who has lost millions in a fraud or the return of a person who has been missing for two decades. He is therefore forced to attribute such miraculous, mind boggling, logic-defying feats to the supreme power of faith.

Believers insist that faith never fails a person. It is we who fail, when we give up on our faith. Having faith in ourselves, our abilities, our loved ones and our convictions gives the weakest of us the inner strength to endure and persevere in moments of adversity. It motivates us to do our best. Most importantly, it gives us confidence, clarity and serenity as opposed to the tension, anxiety and torment which the faithless have to suffer. Whether it is allegiance to a religious doctrine or belief in a political leader, guru or mentor or blind and implicit loyalty to a friend, faith goes beyond the realm of trust. While trust may be based on the deed, action and behaviour of the person concerned, faith goes a step further. It is complete devotion and belief irrespective of popular opinion. It relies completely on instinct and unshaken belief of the heart lending to it an aura which is akin to godliness.

Faith, hope and love, according to the traditional Christian doctrine, are virtues which distinguish those who flourish in life due to their religious belief. Every religion recognises the discipline, power and spiritual dimension added by faith to the moral fabric of the society and people. At the same time, it does not discount the meaning and depth it lends to human experience and to our daily lives. A shared faith binds people in ways that cannot be duplicated by other means. Faith moulds the ideals that guide the aspirations we have for ourselves. It in turn affect the way we deal with others.

A human being without faith and reverence is morally adrift, although today an irreverent attitude is fashionable. Faith can contribute to the social stability and moral development of individuals and groups. Those who do not have enough faith have some spiritual deficiency. Emily Dickinson in her poem I Never Saw a Moor highlights the fact that true faith requires no proof. She says, "I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot, As if the chart were given." Faith may be illogical, it may be all in our mind, it may not conform to any equation of give and take and it may defy all acceptable societal norms but it most definitely has the power to pull things through. In that sense it is the most crucial factor for those who believe in the art of positive thinking. That is why one person’s faith may not work for another.

Norman Vincent Peale in his book on positive imaging says, "Whenever some skeptic asks me how to live a faith-filled life, I recommend to him the six Xs — exposure, explanation, experiment, experience, expression and expansion." He feels one has to expand oneself — in the moral, physical, spiritual and emotional sense — by arming oneself with knowledge, insights and faith if one has to surmount odds and rise above oneself.

But the ultimate test of faith remains one in which we allow another to emerge unscathed and untainted by our suspicions, doubts and hateful feelings even when there is no witness, proof or document to validate a claim to innocence. When we utilise our reserves of instinctive faith, complete love and trust in our loved one, we allow our heart to dictate to our mind the honesty and goodness of the person who is under suspicion. Undoubtedly, this faith has to be built on a foundation of trust. Robert Schuller in his book, Tough times don’t last, tough people do has compared faith to a seed. To turn into a flowering shady tree, the seed has to go through a cyclical process where it is first planted, then watered and nourished after which it bears fruit and reaches maturity. These five stages which the seed goes through before bearing fruit are akin to the cycle of faith.

In the ‘nesting phase’, faith takes birth according to one’s level of self confidence and self-esteem. It is possible that in a company the junior most executive and the managing director, or in the school the back-bencher and the class-topper both have equally high IQ and creativity levels but because one of them believes in his brilliance, he actualises his potential, while the other is left at the bottom of the ladder. Faith will die in this phase if we do not believe in the ideas that pop into our heads and if we continue to trivialise our effort and potential.

Unless we believe in ourselves we cannot move onto the second stage of faith which is the ‘testing phase’. Blind faith can be dangerous. We have to learn to train our sense of judgement, proportion and balance. Weigh the pros and cons logically. Let it be preceded by thought and planning. All contradictions and conflicts in our value system must be sorted out. Before taking the plunge undertake a realistic assessment of the situation. Once the mind is clear and eager to initiate action one is ready to enter the ‘investing phase’. Here one makes a public commitment of one’s time, money and effort. Our personal integrity, character and sense of being are at stake. This public announcement can deter some of us who find their confidence level faltering under observation. Now, along with faith one may need to turn to the supreme power of prayer and acknowledge that in addition to our best efforts we need the good wishes and blessings of the Almighty. This would give us greater confidence in the fourth stage of faith-building which is the ‘arresting phase’.

Faith by now has got firmly entrenched in our subconscious. We have learnt to balance effort and wisdom with humility, trust and faith. Having faith in ourselves and in the knowledge that everything will be all right gives us the necessary direction and strength to correct the wrongs. There could be tough times when we are down and out. Everything seems to be going awry. All the routes seem blocked. Now we have to add new dimension to our faith because faith alone may not work wonders. It is the guiding force which pushes us into doubling our efforts and concentration levels, motivating those around us to cooperate and join hands and steering us towards unseen, invisible forces which could be in the form of people, situations or other inputs which to the lay person appear magically out of nowhere but which actually are a result of a very strong faith. This takes us into the final ‘cresting phase’ of faith where all wrongs have been corrected, miraculous wonder cures found and happiness and balance restored.

When all else fails it is only faith and prayer that we can turn to. In moments of grief and pain when there seems no light at the end of the tunnel, it is the faith which sees us through. Of all the virtues, faith helps us bear the pain and uncertainty of life. For it is faith that stands firmly rooted, unshaken by doubt and death.