There is always a very sweet yet thin line that demarcates these two, trust and faith. I feel trust is when we believe in something’s reliability and genuineness while also applying our logic to verify it. We are consciously verifying the facts while we do trust it. It is an effort we make towards believing in something but with open eyes and alertness. Whereas faith is its higher version or a later stage, where one completely entrusts to something or someone almost to the level of devotion without any second thought or doubt.
I was wondering how does one get to know about the difference, when I witnessed a beautiful incident that cleared my confusion.
Once while sitting beside a swimming pool, relaxing and looking around, I saw a very young girl wearing a float and playing with her elder sister, who must be around thirteen to fourteen years old. They were on one side of the pool near the pool’s steps. The young girl was holding onto the railing of the ladder that leads into the pool. They were chatting casually splashing water on each other but towards the inner edge of the pool. The young one was not ready to leave the edge of the pool and was tightly holding onto the railing with one hand.
After sometime tired of being in one place, her sister showed her how to push the feet against the wall and start swimming. She was trying to get her sister swim so that she could move around in the water and enjoy it. The young one watched happily while her sister was showing her the demonstration. When her sister approached her and tried to convince her to try it, the young girl initially refused with a smile but as her sister insisted and she realised that it meant leaving her support and going in water, she panicked. Her sister tried to assure her that she was in a float and nothing would drown her. She also held her hand, but somehow this did not convince the baby sister and she refused to leave the pool side. Her sister made her kick the legs to see how it helps someone move ahead in water. She was coaxing her into going a few steps at a time and promised that she would hold her tight. It took het a while though she got coaxed by her sister into trying it. The little girl finally felt confident to try out with her sister holding her hand. After moving away from the edge of the pool though, she realised that she had nothing to hold on to and she frantically started screaming and calling her father, who was on the other side of the pool. Her sister held her hand tight and assured that she would not leave her, but the little one kept yelling. Her sister asked her to look at herself and see how nicely she was floating while holding her hand but to no avail. She continuously kept telling her sister to call their dad. Tired of her screaming, the elder one finally called their father while taking her to the edge of the pool again. The father arrived near them and inquired what happened. She explained the whole scenario and with a smile on his face, he offered his hand to this younger one in a same way her sister had. He asked her to start kicking so that she could move across the water while holding his hand. Suddenly this young girl started kicking her legs comfortably and confidently and slowly moved in the water holding his hand. Her sister got upset with her and asked what made her scream so madly when she was holding her hand. She complained, to their father about the whole scene her baby sister had created. Her father gave a smile and asked her to ignore it. Both the kids kept teasing each other and making faces at each other while he took the younger one across the pool, who was now as comfortable as a fish in the water.
I was watching this entire episode and wondered, given the same situation what must have triggered panic in the young girl while being with her sister and what instilled the confidence when accompanied by her father?
She certainly trusted her sister and that is why she was in the pool with her, away from their parents, playing and enjoying till she felt safe. She trusted her sister as long as she was holding onto some support as a backup. But the moment she realised that the support was taken away, she panicked, even in the company of her sister, fearing that it would not be sufficient for her safety.
When she held her father’s hand, she felt safe even without any other support to keep her safe. She felt her father was in total control of the situation and could very well take care of her. This gave her a sense of confidence and inner peace, that now she did not require any other external support to be safe.
Both were the same situations for a third person to watch but it was the state of her mind, which mattered. She had faith in him which assured her that nothing can go wrong when he was around. She completely entrusted herself to him without bothering about the back up. This deep faith in him that he can deal with anything in his capacity made her feel secured in his company. It was a kind of feeling of surrendering to him without any doubt.