A few years ago I saw a case of suicide. It was a sweet seventeen-year old girl. I reached the first place after the police had already pulled down the body from the fan where she had hung herself. They laid her on the bed. She wore a pair of jeans and a white T-Shirt. I had tears as I watched her lying dead.
“Why did you do it?” I asked silently. Her parents had been informed and they were in a state of shock, “Why did she do it?” they asked, broken over the phone. It must have been something she couldn’t handle: A broken relationship, shattered trust, loneliness, hurt, pain. I looked at her body as it lay on the bed, a pretty girl, gone forever.
There is a story about a man who had lost his leg in an accident. After he had learned to walk on crutches, he visited a holy place. The place was crowded with sick people who all went there seeking miracles.
The man suddenly overheard one of the pilgrims say about him, “This is preposterous. Has he come to ask God to give him back his leg?” With a smile on his face the handicapped man turned round and replied, “Of course I have not come here to ask God back for my leg. I have come to pray to God to help me live without it..!” Can you see the handicapped man. With missing leg he enters the place of worship. He does not ask for healing. He does not ask for miracle. All he asks for is strength. I can bet my last rupee that he got the strength he asked for.
That he must have left that place of worship with a smile on his face and all those watching him must have asked themselves, “What fool is this who smiles although there is no healing?” And he must have smiled to himself and murmured, “A fool who has just received a healing of his mind!” Yesterday in the ‘Writer’s Course’, I conduct through Zoom, the electricity went off, because of a cable fault. “Bring the electricity back before my class Lord!” I prayed with a smile, and the smile slowly disappeared as the bulbs, the air-conditioner and laptop stared blankly at me. I started the class, my laptop battery gave up the ghost half way, switched on my phone, moved to the terrace as it was getting dark, and the class went off well.
All along, I prayed, “Hold me Lord!” and His hand guided me. And He’s holding you when someone else gets the promotion you deserve, when the markets crash and you face bankruptcy and ruin. He’s there when the university keeps you back another year. “He’s always there..!
