We often wondered the existence of God.
How spiritual are we?
How can our emotions linked to our spirituality?
Why is it that positive people have the most fruits and happiness? While the opposite lives on angst and depression?
Why does our decision and judgement affects not only our lives but also of others?
Why do our lives intertwine?
Like a child, we asked humongous questions until we see ourselves in that breaking-free ultimate question,
WHAT IS OUR PURPOSE?
At first, I thought of correlating faith with Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. And that religion will only play role on a person’s love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization phases of life. Until I proven myself wrong.
In this walk of journey I’ve seen a lot of wealthy, career, and successful business people who still feels empty. Some achieved success in their younger years; while others passed their mid-life and still on ‘catch 22’ in building their dreams. While the irony of all is that people living below the middle-class possess more happiness. They are more grateful for small gestures that they receive.
One thing we can’t deny is the linkage of spirituality to God’s existence. Happy people at most keep constantly thanking God for all the blessing He bestowed upon them. While struggling people still awaits for their experience with God. Waiting that God will awe them in wonders. While others does not believe in God’s existence.
Interestingly, Pew Research Center on Religion reported approximately 84% of the world’s population in 2010 believes in God based on their religious affiliations. The remaining population on the other hand have either neglect the idea that there is God and others have decided to abandon the notion and turn up to irreligion.
One admiration I have for Singapore is the freedom to express religion or faith due to its cultural diversity. Here in Singapore the common religions are: Christians, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist. On another perspective it attracts the foreigners – immigrants mentality to move to a country where their religion is openly spoken. It gives them the sense of belonging.
I started attending Moriah Assembly of God (one of the Christian churches of Singapore) early 2012 while me and husband were still dating. A small community of Christians where the walk of faith is rather intimate. The community knows each other and the essence of caregroups give more intimacy to the faith. My husband and I believes we all belong to a church. It’s just a matter of time to find your church. And we both felt it; we both belong to Moriah.
With our busy schedules, we do our best to attend the church service; caregroup, and other means of fellowships. Needless to say, Moriah church played a big role to our marriage and now our married life. I reborn my Christian faith in Moriah; and during our wedding ceremony, our Moriah family helped us and our Pastor Simon officiated our wedding.
As we grow, age, and continue our walk of life, we need a church. We need a church family that will walk with us in growing our faith and experience God in our lives. Experience God, experience Jesus, experience the Holy Spirit.
Last June 2013 I attended my very first church camp through Moriah in Phuket Thailand. With God’s financial blessings, me and my husband able to listen and further grown our faith through the church.
Our Moriah family. Church camp 2013 in Phuket, Thailand
My husband with our youth Amanda
While the kids were busy admiring the beauty of nature..
The camp is very active.
And the kids are attentive to the game masters..
We were divided to teams where camaraderie starts to kick in!
Excellent service! Where we held our camp…
Our Moriah Youths graced us with their talents for dancing…
The fun and laughter where all generation gaps were forgotten..
And here’s another one..
Our youths happy faces..
A game is a competition regardless of age.. Uncle Alan showing off with his moves..
The church camp may have last only for few days but what we’ve learned and experienced was a leap of faith. Science cannot disprove God’s existence. The more we resist spirituality, the more unhappy we become.
Leading back to our question, What is your purpose in life? It’s simply being happy. But we dragged ourselves in societal norms and rat-race competition that we wined up living a complicated and overstretch life. We forget to appreciate the beauty of nature and the people surrounding us. We stopped growing personally and spiritually.
If you want to be happy, start putting smile in your face when you wake up each morning. Paired it up with a silent gesture of giving ‘Thanks!’. I always believe that we could have just died in our sleep but God gave us another morning to be with our loved ones. Accept that you cannot control life and you need God to be with you. If you have a Christian friend whom you have constantly rejected the invitation, why not give it a chance?
If you’re a fellow Christian and feels hungry for God’s words, you can always open your stashed and dusty Bible in your home. Alternatively, through smart phones, electronic Bible are in various digital application stores –> the word of God is always within reach.
As for me and my husband, our faith, like our lives… is a constant journey. We’re walking by faith. And we’re walking by Moriah.
As we wanted to share it to everyone, if you feel the need to be connected to a church, feel free to join us in our worship every Sunday in Golden Village Cinema, Vivo City, Harbourfront Singapore from 10AM – 12PM.
Til next time. Au revoir.
life's but a journey 