MOST of us spend a greater part of our lives worrying about things not going right. But did just worrying about a situation ever change anything? Did it make a child come home sooner? Or a test score higher? Did it put money in your pocket? Or a ring on someone’s finger? Make a car run smoother? Or did it help get a better job?
No! All it did was waste a lot of time. So what should we do instead of worrying? There’s this little story I read which I found quite revealing. There was an old man who operated a rowboat for ferrying passengers between an island and the mainland. One day a passenger noticed that he had painted on one oar the word Work, and on the other oar the word Faith. Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this.The old man replied, “I will show you.” Dropping one oar, he rowed only with the oar named Work. Of course, the boat just went around in circles. Then he switched oars, picking up Faith and dropping Works. And the little rowboat went around in circles again – this time in the opposite direction.
After this demonstration, the old man picked up both oars Faith and Work, and rowing with both oars together swiftly coursed over the water. He looked at the passenger and said, “You see, that is the way it is in life as well as in rowing a boat. You got to keep both oars in the water, otherwise, you’ll just go in circles..!
And that’s how problems come about, when we go round in circles. We decide to visit every temple, mosque and church about some problem, praying that faith will do something, and going back home, hoping for a miracle. But we don’t work.
Or we worry about a problem and start working from morning to nightfall on it, yet can’t come up with a solution. We burn the midnight oil, we go without food or keep unhealthy timings with our sleep and finally find we are nowhere near reaching the answer and then we start worrying why things are not happening.
Work and Faith go together my friend. There’s no point praying for a miracle in your exams if you haven’t studied hard enough. If you have then use faith for peace and calm during the exams to recollect everything; and it will happen. Or asking for a promotion or a new job if you are lazy. It won’t happen, and you’ll just go round in circles. So stop worrying, put both your oars into the river of life and start rowing. You’ll find unbelievable miracles happening..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
