I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: ‘Go down again — I dwell among the people.’
— John Henry Newman
Life is an unpredictable journey in which we know the destination, but are unaware of the right path to reach it. We need someone who can illuminate the path for us. We need a salve to impart serenity to our frazzled minds and weary hearts when fate turns cruel and unkind. This is the only way to help renew our spirits and retain the same reservoir of wisdom that has steered us though the stormy sea of life. The fact that hope evolves from faith — faith in the divine and faith in oneself — is what helps a person steer his bark through the rough and tumble of this journey called life. All this clearly tells us of a force controlling and directing these events. It is acts of these types, which reinforce our faith and belief. But every individual does not perceive these acts in the same fashion and with the same effect.
The sensitivity of the heart is the crucial factor in this process. Thomas Merton said, “Ultimately, faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to the questions on which all our happiness depends cannot be found in any other way.” Einstein often invoked God, although his was a rather de-personalised deity. As he himself said, he believed in a “God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists.” His faith in this divine harmony was what led him to reject the view that the universe is subject to randomness and uncertainty. A search for God’s design, he said, was “the source of all true art and science”.
There are all sorts of faiths: Faith in oneself, faith in God, faith in the power of prayer. There is the faith of the atheist and the faith of the Gnostic. It is when one prays that one finds strength in oneself. The strength is always there, waiting to be discovered and used. It is this strength that Norman Cousins relied on, when suffering from what seemed an incurable disease and lying disconsolately in a hospital bed. He summoned it all like a general in battle . There is no fault in God’s plan of the universe. Its alchemy is simply marvellous, with a unique and amazing harmony.
God gave man the purest nature, and it is incumbent on our part to preserve the whole ecosystem which God gave us for the fulfillment of our physical, social, spiritual and emotional cravings. By designating man as his vicegerent, God has exalted his position and put him on a much higher pedestal than what has been granted to the angels. It is this enlightenment that reinforces the wisdom that rock-like faith in divinity alone can help us get rid of many of the searing anxieties that keep nagging us and keep nibbling at our precious emotional energies.
