The Magical Bridge Of Faith

Volume 8

A Magical Bridge

Once upon a time, a man stood at the edge of a very high cliff. This special cliff did not let you just turn around and go back, for there was no turning back. The man had two choices.

He could stay there for the rest of his life or move on beyond the cliff toward the mountain on the other side. The cliff symbolizes the crossroads of life where one is either stuck or takes a leap of faith to move forward despite not knowing what might happen.

Finally, he decided to do it. To simply take the leap of faith.

He stepped forward, trusting in his heart that life and the Universe were supporting him. As he stepped onto what he saw as just empty space, part of a bridge magically appeared under his foot! Feeling happy, he shouted with relief, “Hey, this is trust! This is faith! The Universe is with me!”

With each step forward, the magical bridge kept appearing under his feet. Everything seemed beautiful and good. Even when there were challenges, he kept reminding himself, “Don’t look back, just keep moving.”

Everything seemed perfectly bright and sunny. Suddenly, things changed. The sky darkened, and a storm rushed in. The man asked, “Hey, I’ve already made the choice to move, so why is the Universe putting me in this situation? I’ve done my part by trusting life. Where is the beautiful sky and why is it raining? Why can’t I see the bridge anymore?” It was difficult to see the small and narrow bridge up ahead. The man was worried as he really wanted to get to the mountain on the other side.

Despite his great fear and doubt, he didn’t give in. “Never mind. I will continue to trust…” He closed his eyes, followed his heart and kept walking forward. Miraculously, the bridge continued to form under his feet! He remained safe whilst moving forward on his journey, thus learning that trust was required on both sunny and stormy days. By just following his heart, he would eventually arrive victorious on top of his mountain.

Suddenly, the bridge became shaky. It felt as if it was about to collapse! “Since I trusted the Universe on sunny and rainy days, why should this happen now?” he worried. His only choice was to move ahead because it was too far to turn back.

Patiently, he took each step with his heart in the space of stillness and he landed safely on the bridge. His lesson was to continue with trust and faith, even when life was shaky.

Then, out of the blue on the next day, the bridge collapsed! The man tumbled all the way down into the ocean. Blaming the Universe, he asked, “Why? I did everything that I needed to. I trusted and held my faith. Why am I down here instead of up there on the bridge?”

And this is what happens to many people – they lose trust and doubt when things do not work out the way they had expected it to.

There was no other choice than to save himself. Pulling out from the ocean, he continued again on his journey up the mountain. But it was different this time. He progressed on to a higher height in his life. That became his ascension, moving to the next level of light, to finally arrive at the top of the mountain.

The story could continue endlessly. Because that’s what life is about – coming face to face with challenges and feeling fear, yet moving forward with trust and faith. And arriving at the top of one mountain, and the next mountain, and the next …

Lessons On Trust & Faith

Faith Is Unconditional Through Good & Bad

Trust and faith, like love, is unconditional. When you place conditions on your trust and faith, it can never be true trust and faith. Like the man in the story, you may not see the next step or that invisible bridge before you. Though you don’t know what will happen next, you still trust that there will always be something there for you.

During good times people say, “The Universe is with me because of the good things in my beautiful life.” On the other hand, they blame life and other people for bad situations because they can’t see the love in bad situations. 5 years later they may declare, “Without that bad situation, I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be who I am today. I am so proud to have gone through that experience.” The realization that it was a gift happens only after 5 years! In the meantime, they blame their brothers, sisters, parents, and the entire world.

See the goodness in each fall. Sometimes a person asks for A, and life gives him B because B serves him better. Instead he blames, and fails to trust. That’s when he doesn’t see. Life is like that.

Faith Is A Choice

When you make up your mind, you just walk with the Universe as if a guide is holding your hand. You cannot see it but you can feel love in every part of your life. That teaches you to have gratitude in your heart and appreciate life.

Faith is a matter of choice to trust the unseen, life, what one may call the Universe. To trust that life supports you. And that no matter what happens, life will show you a bigger picture as you move to a greater height of love.

Faith Means Following Your Heart

Your heart empowers you whereas your mind disempowers you. It’s that simple. Your heart empowers you to achieve your dream, to think bigger and to be fearless. Whereas your mind casts doubts and fears. It always analyzes and stops you from moving forward while your heart keeps you moving. Always follow your heart.

Faith Is Courage

Normally, people with big problems standing at the edge of the cliff, will doubt. They will sit there at the edge, waiting, not moving, as fear builds up and clouds their minds and hearts. Perhaps they may insist, “I have no choice. Life has put me in this situation, making me jobless, sick, depressed…” and continue to repeat that to themselves and others.

A second group may be encouragingly saying to themselves, “Let’s take a leap of faith!” They had taken the first leap, but the second time around, they look at the bridge, thinking, “What if one day I take another step on this invisible bridge and it’s the end of the path?”

Instead of moving on, they return to the edge of the cliff and behave like the first group. They say, “I have tried. I did my part in trusting, but I’m still depressed.” Nothing will happen after that, because they didn’t continue their journey. It’s as simple as that. They had trusted halfway, then stopped and turned back. They then blame life.

There is a third group. They will go all the way like the man in the story. They move forward, be it rain or shine, and even when everything seems lost. Picking themselves up, they courageously move on with trust in life, and faith in the Universe that they will arrive at a greater height in life.

Faith Is Taking The First Step To Action

For some people, following the heart is not an issue – it’s taking the first step to listen to the heart and really acting on it that is difficult. Yet, action is the key, and that is what many dare not do. Taking action reduces your fear because you stop feeding the fear, thereby making it easier to move. And most of the time, thereby making it easier to move. And most of the time, the fear doesn’t materialize, making one more courageous step to move even faster.

Taking the first step is important in matters of faith and to continue action without stopping. If you stop you will stay on the invisible bridge or make a U-turn. The journey of life is a continuous one. Life is like riding a bicycle. Keep moving to stay balanced. Once you stop pedaling, you will fall, so don’t even think of stopping.

Faith Is Trusting People

Can we have faith in people when people sometimes disappoint us?

I would say yes. Trusting life and people are the same, because without people there wouldn’t be life. Society is part of the system of life. When you trust life, you trust anything and everything that happens, that comes your way, and you know that everything is happening for your highest good. And that’s it.

Faith Is Faith Itself

The funny thing is people rather choose fear than faith. People ask me, “Why put my trust in faith when it is something I can’t see or prove?” But I ask them, “Can you see fear? Yet you place your trust in fear! And you don’t question that!”

People don’t question fear. They do not ask, “Why should I fear?” Instead it is always, “Why should I have faith?” They cannot “see” fear just like they cannot “see” faith but they choose to be fearful rather than to be faithful. That’s funny.

You tell people, “You should forgive, you should love.” But they will ask, “Why should I forgive?” Yet when they are angry, they don’t ask, “Why should I be angry?” People don’t ask “Why should I be angry?”, but they will ask, “Why should I love?”

How To Have Trust & Faith

There is no “how” to it, just do it! That’s the very meaning of faith. Take the leap of faith yourself or something will happen one day that is going to push you off the cliff… and that something is called life.

In short, your two choices are jumping off the cliff first and letting life unfold itself, or sitting at the edge of the cliff, paralyzed with fear.

People don’t trust. We stubbornly cling on to things that we are used to. And so we just stand at the edge of the cliff, not taking any action and not being able to move forward. That’s why sometimes the Universe will say, “Just let go.” That’s what we need to do. But people resist.

Faith is so abstract, and yet so amazingly beautiful when experienced with a realized mind.