Faith keeps us going

During my morning walk on a small beach along the Sunshine Coast, I see two lines of footprints in the sand in front of me. It is a beautiful morning and the sunlight reflects as strong over the ocean that it is almost impossible to keep my eyes open. Guided by the wind and the sound of the ocean I even risk to close my eyes every few steps.

Although I’m not religious, always when I see footprints in the sand, I have to think of the parable in which a youngster questions god’s companionship in his life. He asks god why he didn’t keep his promise to always walk along his side through life.

When the going got tough, and he needed god the most,
he could only see one line of footprints.

When the boy looks back at his life, he can see two lines of footprints: one of himself, and one of god. However, those moments the going got tough, and he needed god the most, he could only see one line of footprints, hence he blamed god to have left him those moments he needed to rely on him. 

In all his wisdom and patience, God answered him that precisely those moments when the going got tough, and he needed him the most, it was God’s footprint solely that was left, carrying the boy where he couldn’t keep going.

Power of Faith

One doesn’t have to believe in any kind of external god to understand the power of faith. It isn’t the physical creature of a god carrying the one in need; rather, it is one’s faith that carries oneself precisely there where the going gets tough.

When it seems like you drag yourself through life, it is the faith in anything that drags you, carries you, pushes you forward.

When it seems like you drag yourself through life

faith pushes you forward.

For a lot of people, it is the faith in an externalised god, or in an abstract concept like the universe or karma; for others it is the faith in a particular mission or destiny, or even a person, a muse, or someone or something that is worth to fight for, that is worth to keep on going for, no matter how much it takes.

Behind the Horizon

When the going gets tough to me, I always remind myself of a story I told myself as a child. We used to spend some holidays at the coast, and when watching the sea, it seemed like it ended there where the sealine touched the skyline, the perfect horizontal line of the horizon.

However, we were told that behind that eternal and empty line, other countries were supposed to be. I tried to imagine how they were there, those vast masses of land, although I couldn’t see them, and I would never see them standing on this shore.

I told myself to hold on, because they were there,

the vast masses of land that I couldn’t see.

But those days when my going got tough, and I felt like drowning, struggling to keep my head above water in the endless wild sea of life, with no beginning and no end, and without a clear destination within reach; I told myself to hold on, because they were there, the vast masses of land that I couldn’t see.

I told myself to hold on, because there was a reason for this suffering, a purpose of this seemingly endless path, and that one day I would reach the other side, the shore of the unknown and invisible land masses, the end of the struggle, the walking after the drowning. I had faith it was there, and faith carried me through it. Those days, I as well left one line of footprints, the ones of my faith, carrying me to the other side.

Whenever the going gets tough, I visualise the two lines of footprints, and how people need faith to carry them on their intended path when it seems impossible to carry on.

As long as you have faith, as long as you believe in something, you can move mountains, cross seas, and continue your path, no matter what it takes.

Eventually, it is the faith and thrust that lays within oneself

that allows one to overcome setbacks.

Faith is what keeps us going when the going gets tough. Some people have externalised it in religion, or in their kind of muse, whether it is an existing one or an illusion; people need faith to keep on going, but eventually, it is the faith and thrust that lays within oneself that allows you to overcome setbacks, carry on when the going seems to be impossible. And sometimes we need faith of others in us to hold on where we seem to have lost all other faith.