One of the stories from Ramayana about Hanuman comes to mind.

When Sugriva (King of monkeys at Kishkindha) forms a pact with Sri Rama and agrees to send his monkey army (vanaras) in all four directions to search for Sita, Hanuman is sent in the South direction with a few valorous colleagues!

Jambavan (Mighty bear), Angada (Vali’s son), Nala & Neela are all in his team. Including Hanuman, it goes without saying that the team is VERY strong.

Now, they all search for Sita and travel in the South direction for many days. They are unable to find her and feel extremely hungry and thirsty. They reach the mouth of a cave in a mountainous area. The army of monkeys feels they need to drink some water at least to survive and move forward.

There is no water in sight. One bird flies out of the cave & shakes its wings to dry off the water. Everyone over there shouts in joy realizing there is water inside the cave.

They try to step inside the cave, however, it is pitch dark inside. No one could step foot inside without crawling, not knowing where the next step might land them. The entrance was so small.

Inevitably, they look at Hanuman in his gigantic form. Hanuman smiles at them, thinks of Sri Rama and tells them not to worry. He will lead the way inside the cave. One other monkey can hold Hanuman’s tail and follow right behind him. Holding each other’s tails, they can ensure they stick close together and follow the leader (Hanuman). Basically, stick together in a crisis!

They form a chain and start walking/crawling inside the cave for a long time. No one knew how much distance they had crossed, the sides of the cave were narrowing, but their confidence kept increasing as they continued to move forward one step at a time. After many hours of traveling through extreme darkness, when they saw a tiny stream of light at the end of the tunnel, they were jubilant.

Slowly, they move towards the light and the cave starts widening letting in more light. When they exit the tunnel, they find themselves in a beautiful garden filled with trees, fruits and water springs, where an ascetic lady called Swayamprabha was meditating.

Hanuman explains that his whole army of monkey were out to search for Sita and are extremely hungry & thirsty and requests her if they could consume the fruits and water from the garden. Seeing his humility, she agrees and everyone gets to quench their hunger & thirst.

During challenging times, when we feel there is no option left, that tiny entrance to the cave seems like a way out of our misery. We might see the entrance of the cave, but sometimes might lack the confidence to be able to walk through it – as there is a lot of uncertainty in that path. We do not know whether there will be light at the end of the tunnel, or the cave might not have an opening on the other side. In such situations, faith helps us gain the confidence to take the leap.

Dealing with uncertainty needs a lot of faith & courage!

Now, what helped Hanuman take the leap of faith. Everyone else believed in Hanuman and had faith in him that he would lead them to the other side. What did Hanuman rely on? Seeing his people suffer due to pangs of hunger & thirst cannot be seen by a leader. The faith of his army gave him the sense of responsibility. He thinks of Sri Rama and his mission, and that he would not be able to complete it without the monkey army, and ensuring they were healthy & fine was his responsibility.

With great power comes great responsibility.

That responsibility gives faith & courage to the person to deal with all odds, face & overcome any obstacles that come their way and move forward.

Hanuman teaches us to have that kind of courage to face & overcome any obstacles that come our way & move forward, albeit step by step!