THE other day there was a friendly debate on a WhatsApp group about building a successful enterprise, where one of us talked about faith and the other that hard work was all that was needed, and finally a third joined in who agreed that hard work was needed in any endeavor, but faith in God was equally a necessity, which made me remember this story:
There was an old man who operated a rowboat to ferry 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 Work 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!
Most of us use only one or other of these two. We work hard, but do not rely on God, or we say we rely on God, and sit day and night waiting for a miracle. Both these methods used without the other only produce worry!
We worry like crazy and then visit every temple, mosque and church about some problem, praying that God will do something, and going back home, hope for a miracle.
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. Hard work and Faith in God go together. I have shared many instances of this in my book, DARE!
There’s no point praying for a miracle in your exams if you haven’t studied hard enough. If you have worked hard then pray God will give you peace and calm during the exams to recollect everything; and He will.
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 simply put both your oars of faith and hard work into the river of life and start rowing. You’ll find unbelievable miracles happening as worry drowns..!
