Faith

As a churchgoing child, it's funny I should say this - my clearest memory of faith, hope and love are not from the Bible, but from an Enid Blyton book, The Land of Far-Beyond.

If I remember correctly, it's about a motley crew of characters travelling through all sorts of strange, sinful lands to the pearly gates. At the end, few make it and the angel asks, which is most important, faith, hope or love?

Naturally, the answer is love. Even pop culture agrees on this one, albeit the view rather distorted.

As for hope, I'd like to think of myself as a forward-looking optimist, always believing that the future holds much more.

I was never good at differentiating between faith and hope. I suppose in many ways, faith held religious connotations for me. On the other hand, we use hope for everything - I hope you're feeling better, Hopefully, I'll get this! etc. And let's face it, religion doesn't sell as well as optimism.

Yesterday, I had my faith tested. I'm ashamed to say that when things did not go my way, I crumbled and dissolved into tears. I threw up (though that is more likely a result of hanging out in the CBD for 10 hours in a miniskirt at 13C). I immediately dialed the ex's number.

But then I remembered earlier in the day, SL had tagged me on an eloquently put note on Facebook. And it was about faith. And it felt preemptory, as if she knew what I would go through in a few more hours.

I reread it, thoroughly this time. Sooky consoled me. I threw up again. And then at the end of it, I stopped crying, blew my nose, downed tom yum noodles, and decided that if this was going to fall through, I was going to believe anyway, that my Maker had made all the necessary arrangements for what is best and what is right.

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, BELIEVE that you have received it, and it will be yours." - Mark 11:25

"NOW faith is, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things yet unseen" - Hebrews 11:1

(Quotes stolen from Sarah's Facebook note, which in turn are from the Bible)