Footprints of Faith

The Pieta, carved in marble by Michelangelo

From all claims that surrounded the Charlie Kirk assassination in Utah, this one seemed to be the one too many: the exclamation mark behind his Christian faith, around which he built his whole political movement. Bible savvy to his core, Jesus seemed to light Kirk’s way as a conservative political debater, until his very last breath. It’s hard to beat that – if someone, at the end, dies for his faith.

To think that Jesus, with his uncompromising call for love, truth, and compassion, might have a point, obviously echoes as too frightening or the "Yalla yalla, intifada"-followers. It doesn’t either suit the woke trend, it’s at best a ridiculous unproven madness for the atheists. German media started to rant and rave about Kirk’s political opinions to the point, that for 37% of the German political left, murdering Kirk became justifiable.

In Arizona meanwhile, 200.000 US citizens gathered on a demonstration of silent and peaceful faith …unthinkable in modern Europe, unless there is a football world cup. The Catholic and protestant churches of Germany, who should be the first to have Jesus’ back by all means, were once more completely useless. Since long time, they are timidly praying to the rainbow flag instead. The sheep they should herd are at an all time low, running away from the churches as if the devil was behind them. And maybe, he is. Noah, the captain of the Judeo-Christian arch, is most likely rotating in his grave. 

In this country, we rather drown in Islamistic Sharia law in our cities and streets than break a stick for Christianity, leave alone for Jesus publicly. Within the power vacuum of the widest spread religion on this planet, Christians are still the most persecuted ones on earth. 250 million people are actually suffering the immediate effects of that, including murder. Without a serious change, we’ll be eaten alive by Islamism, and more than that by our own spiritual void on which that extremism grows. 

WE HAVE LOST AN ESSENTIAL SOURCE OF SANITY AND HEALING.

As a medical journalist, sitting at the bedside of so many, young and old, curable and incurable, I have learned this: At the end, it all comes down to faith; to admitting that without the graceful intervention of the universe, without making peace with what is as it is, without surrendering to what you might call Jesus, or otherwise, you’re screwed.

Atheism won’t suffice when push comes to shove. You need someone who is 100% on your side, no questions asked, no judgements, pure acceptance.

It would be enough if this someone was YOU. But that's usually not the case.

FOOTPRINTS

One night I dreamed a dream.

"I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord.

When the last scene of my life shot before me I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

There was only one set of footprints.I realized that this was at the lowest and saddest times of my life.

This always bothered me and I questioned the Lord about my dilemma.“Lord, You told me when I decided to follow You, You would walk and talk with me all the way.But I’m aware that during the most troublesome times of my life there is only one set of footprints.

I just don’t understand why, when I need You most, You leave me.”

He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings.When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” ― Margaret Fishback Powers

Once you get that, you allow your systemic switches to change course. Having hit the very real button of helplessness, and acknowledging that you can neither create nor avoid "one single grey hair on your head", as the Bible says, you can start working from there. 

Faith will propel you into a different state of being from the one that brought you here in the first place.

In the Bible, the most read book on earth, Jesus had tremendous medical relevance. He was considered a famous healer, with his very simple spiritual message of love and truth and kindness. He helped Lazarus to rise from his death bed, with the help of his disciple Thomas who always rather wanted to see for himself than just listening to rumors. We will come to him later.

Many came asking for help and healing in the early days of the 1st. century, and while Jesus performed his miracles, at the same time, he refused to take the credit for it. „It was your faith that healed you“, he famously said… which shows that even he believed in something bigger than himself. And which means, that you can put meat in the game, too.

WHEN THERE IS NOTHING TO LOOSE…

That’s basically a good start.

Nearly all doctors, I have interviewed, told me that there is no progress in healing without the faithful cooperation of the patient. It's teamwork at its best. And it didn’t (and doesn’t) matter wether these doctors were surgeons or oncologists or specialized in trauma. 

The discovery that your body is not yours alone, but rather the physical expression of your whole existence on this earth, is offering – while being a terrifying thought – the chance to take you to the next level of yourself. 

No spiritual understanding of one’s fate, leave alone peace of mind, can occur without feeling embedded in a bigger picture… in your bigger picture. Without faith, there is also no internal resolution in case the options of cure run out and survival is no longer an option. 

Standing in so many theaters, witnessing so many difficult surgeries turning into successes: How would any doctor dare to make that first cut without putting the scalpel into a hand bigger than only his or her own? Imagine intensive care without prayer. Or a unit, where mums give birth. The line between rising and falling is so fine, that you can’t even anticipate it. If you think, an excellent technique is enough, you don’t know anything about medicine. It doesn’t work without surrender.

LIFE itself won’t work without surrender.

It’s exactly that moment when you give up all resistance when the saints come marching in. And yet, with all that suffering, I have seen in hospitals and hospices, with the children who couldn’t be saved and the parents who mourned them, there was always that burning question if, in fact, Jesus really existed; if the whole Bible thing with its gospels weren’t just based on wishful thinking. 

As a vibrant example of love and kindness, of truth and spiritual determination, and most of all of his ability to not take anything personally, I couldn’t have longed for any better source to turn to. Not because he was so holy. But because he was so human. After decades of studying spiritual scripts, from all walks of teachings, like my favorites about Taoism and the Advaita vedanta, reading about Jesus’ disciple Thomas gave it the final push. In the (his?) gospel, of which the origins are not exactly clear, the life of Jesus was mended with Eastern spiritual wisdom. 

Jesus sculpture of The Way of the Cross on Mount St. Thomas

MEETING THE ANSWER TO YOUR MOST BURNING SPIRITUAL QUESTION

On a trip to India, with a group of friends, we were scheduled to visit Mount St. Thomas in Mylapore/Chennai. I hopped off the bus and only when I saw the first of nine or ten statues of „The Way of the Cross“, leading up to the mountain top, it became clear to me where I was: at the place, where Jesus' so doubtful disciple Thomas had travelled to after the crucification, in order to bring the teachings of his master to India. All the way up to the mountaintop, I cried my eyes out, not knowing what I was actually crying about.

The last statue on top of Mount St. Thomas resembles in a way the Pieta in Rome. Immediate to it, there was a small orphanage that took all the children of the area in, who were, if not wanted by their parents, at least wanted by God and the nuns. 

With all of my heart, I wished, Charly Kirk‘s parents could touch that final statue, too. „It’s the mother's resemblance of the crucification“, said Jordan Peterson, of who Charlie Kirk was a vocal admirer, „to give birth and pour all her love into a child, which at the end she might be forced to throw to the wolves.“ Amen to that.

Thomas, the doubter, was murdered in the little humble chapel he had built in devotion to Jesus, after he had let him touch the wounds in his hands.

I assume, it didn’t matter much to him that he finally became a martyr. On that mountain, all his doubts had faded away. And so have mine.

So: Which spiritual question is yours?

Photo Pieta: Richard Wang