The Power of Gratitude and Faith: Lessons from Christianity on Trust, Vulnerability, and Optimism

I was reading the book called “Dare to lead” from Brene Brown. I’m still in the first chapter, but there was a simple sentence that touched me about Trust and Vulnerability. A lot of people argue that we need to have trust before we show vulnerability. But, in real life, trust takes time to build. We cannot wait until the time before we show our vulnerabilities. This drew me towards religion and how some people want piles of proof before they believe in anything other than themselves. While its not a bad idea and there is nothing wrong with that approach, it also takes us away from experiencing live fully and realizing that there is more to life than just our own limited viewpoint.

I’m not a christian, but I love the concepts of prayer and grace that has been around for centuries in christianity. The simple act of saying thank you each day as many times as possible, no matter how hard your life is such a relieving experience. Even when we read the life of earlier apostles, they were persecuted for their religious beliefs and yet they didn’t stop saying grace and they didn’t stop saying the name of the lord on their lips. The horrifying crucixions for sure didn’t deter them and neither did the ravenous lions and other beats tearing their limbs apart in the gladiator dens stop them from being christian. I say all this to trivialize the supposed sufferings a lot of us experience in our lives, where our setbacks are not life endangering and yet for some reason we think our problems are bigger than the rest of the humanity. If these early christian souls could believe in a higher power and have an optimistic outlook, then why cannot we bring the same outlook? Believe in a higher power and keep thinking and chanting the name of the lord for all things that we have and for things that we don’t, for there is surely some reason on why we shouldn’t be getting them?

I read somewhere that the waking up and going to bed are both wonderful times to say prayer to instill a sense of gratitude and hope into our lives. And it also leads us to contentment for the things we have. Hope all of us could spare a few minutes each time to establish this routine and be more grateful for all things we have and for all people we are surrounded with, for they truly care about us.

Amen!