Discard fear, let your faith not be shaken

It happened when I visited a temple in Delhi, India. Someone religious from my family told me that you should visit this temple once when you are in Delhi. I visited the temple and there were lot of people who were standing in a long queue. I think queue was near about 1 Km long. It took near about 2–3 hours to reach the temple so that you can look upon the god’s statue made of silver and gold to get blessed. The priest give you only a moment to look upon the statue like people are there to steal the gold and silver.

Now, Let us come to the point where you can surely start thinking about right and wrong. I was standing in the queue and this queue was moving beside a main road where traffic was running at full speed. Every kind of vehicle were coming and going. Some children who obviously belonged to lower middle class, were running from one side of the road to other side of road, because this temple visit was kind of a picnic for them.

One child was crossing the road because he wanted to reach the toy shop on the other side of the road, then a car came and hit him, I think car driver saw it that a child is crossing the road so he started pushing brakes but it happened so fast that driver was not able to stop the car and he hit the child, And fortunately child wasn't crushed under the car, but he was pushed so hard that he went off the road and fainted. Mother ran screaming towards the child and picked him up. Most of the people including me were standing still and thinking what happened, some people went for help and took the child to doctor I suppose.

When you read this, it doesn't sound that painful but if you had listened to that woman screaming for her child after child was pushed and kicked by a car like a football, you would really start to question these superstitious and religious gathering. If god can’t protect an innocent child then what would else you can expect from him/her. This temple was of a goddess. This incident had shaken up my faith in God, but on the other hand, I also felt thankful to God that the child was alright and did not face any major injuries except for a little bruises and luckily the driver took the child to the hospital with the mother and he was saved.

Next incident now which I'll never forget. It was still very early at 5.30 A.M and total dark. I was driving back from my tuition classes. As our teacher was absent that day, we were asked to go back. It was a Saturday. I was so happy to know that. So, Along with a group of friends, we decided to play football. I already started playing it inside my head as I was driving back. There was mist all around. I was driving my mom's scooty very fast. There was a huge pot hole on the road, and I didn't see it. At approx 70km/hr I tried to swoosh past it, only to be thrown into the air and out of my ride. I made around 2 rolls on the air and 5 on the ground. I landed with my head,and I wasn't wearing a helmet. I took some bruises on my hands and the side of my head. But the most shocking thing was, I couldn't hear anything when I got up.

There was not so many people around, A couple of guys ran towards me and tried to help me, I could see them asking me something. I could see their lips moving. But I couldn't hear anything. I could very clearly see a rooster crowing but couldn't hear anything. A couple of vehicles flew past but no sound. Tears filled my eyes, not because of my bruised body. The thought of never again listening to my mom, dad, brother's voices as I get back home was so heart breaking. I was already warned before not to drive fast,and I brought this on myself. I was so sure that my parents will be crushed to know that I've gone deaf.

At this point, I looked up and a little over the little crowd of people. I saw a church. It was one of those old fashioned buildings with a cross at the top of the church building.Suddenly I had this ray of hope in me. Looking at it, I made a prayer from the bottom of my heart. I said, "Jesus, I know you exist and you do miracles. you can do wonders that doctors can't. please heal me, and I won't be reckless again". I said this prayer from the bottom of my heart. I grew faint, and it was amazing that the next minute I slowly started to hear sound again.

People asked me where my home was, and how I was feeling. I was so elated to hear their voices. And I know that a miracle happened in my life. I recuperated to full health in a couple of days. But I will never forget what went on in my head in that few minutes when I almost became eternally deaf. Thus I know for sure that God exists and my faith grew multifold.

When evidence or facts aren't available––a commonplace situation in many areas of life––we're told to use faith to get at the truth of the matter, as if it's some kind of magical key. We're also told that "faith is better than evidence." Let that sink in! Faith is often combined or confused with other––more-reliable––tools of getting to facts about the world––muddling the faith term in everyday usage. Therefore, it’s important to understand the differences between:

Hope

Faith

Conditional Trust

Earned Trust

Confidence

And since many people lazily lump these terms together under a big "faith umbrella," as if it's all the same––when, in fact, they're very different in meaning and in everyday practice. Hope is neither faith and faith is nor hope, because hope has no expected outcome. Hope is a desire for a particular outcome: to get a sizable holiday bonus, your car to get to the destination without another gas stop, etc––but the outcome is not an expected one.

If you then add an expected outcome to your hope––you now have faith. Please note that the expected outcome is always a desired outcome. Nobody says, "I have faith that all my hair will fall out over the next month." They say, "I have faith that someday I'll be in Heaven." And why does faith always lead to good news? If faith were a reliable pathway to truth––the truth that it uncovers would be a mix of good and bad truths over time. Just like real reliable pathways to truth. But what faith is: Faith is believing that a thing is real––or true––or will be real or true––with no evidence that it's factually real or true––while often ignoring confirmed, contradictory facts that it is not real—or not true. Cheers!