Of Faith and Grace

As I begin to talk about faith, the first thing that comes to my mind is the assembly hall of my school and the little girl (me) standing there, listening with rapt attention to these words…”Faith is the greatest wealth in the world, if you have a strong faith that something will happen, it will happen! If you have strong faith that this mountain will move to the other end, it will move. You know, faith can even move mountains.” FAITH CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS…these four words were ingrained in my mind and from that day, whenever a low phase came in my life, I recited these words to myself…and faith, indeed, moved mountains! I can’t say that what happened with me was what I wanted, but as I look back I can confidently say that, what happened was the best for me, in fact even better than the best. There have been turbulent times, times when I felt that my life will hit rock bottom, but it never did…because there was faith and there was the power of Grace. In fact, if someone were to ask me what my greatest strength is, I would say it is faith, faith that the power of Grace is always with me.
It is not easy to talk about faith and Grace and it is even more difficult to make someone understand it, for it is something to be experienced and not explained. It is so obvious yet so abstract! Faith in what, you might ask? I would say, faith in ourselves, faith that there IS goodness in this universe and faith in the power running this universe, faith in all of these or at least one of these. I believe life can’t move an inch without faith. If there was no faith in any of these, we will be leading a life like some crazy person, doubting each and everything, every second of our life, but it is not so, and we can still sleep peacefully at night because there is faith, whether we realize it or not. “The Leap of Faith” as they beautifully put, is the reason why we are able to take risks and move ahead in life. And Grace is that unseen, unknown power which is always there with us, it is the hand which holds us when we feel we are all alone, it is the ray of sunshine when we feel there is nothing but dark clouds and it is the light at the end of the tunnel!
Any difficulty in life can be handled if there is faith. Grace, for that matter, is always there. But all this does not mean that we leave everything to Grace and just sit and have a strong faith that such and such will happen and it will happen! Without self-effort, neither Grace nor faith can work…but if you have given your best shot to any situation, then dropping it there and then, not worrying about it, believing that the best will happen and giving Grace a chance to act is faith.

Of Faith and Grace – https://t.co/bjlVMRs5mL #living #spirituality pic.twitter.com/Sw06SqMS5n

— Zigverve.com (@zigverve) November 7, 2015

Whenever you feel miserable or lost in life, just have faith that everything will be sorted and only the best will happen to you because your believing, your strong faith, will actually make it happen. In fact, we all have experienced it at some point of life or other. So many times, it has happened to us that even in the middle of nowhere and even at the darkest hour, we got help…if this is not Grace, what is? However, ironically when we are in trouble, we tend to forget all those times! The power which took us out of difficulties all our life, will take us out of them even now and in future…we need to have this faith. May we move ahead with this faith in our life and may we be able to conquer all our doubts and worries and turn all darkness into light, for ourselves and for others for faith makes life worth living. As Forbes beautifully puts it:

He who has faith has…an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness and assuring trust that all will come out well- even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.