A bird perched on a rock

Nature has many beautiful ways of teaching us words of wisdom. Faith is a virtuous attribute that man needs to continue to nurture, and from the viewpoint of love, faithfulness breeds trust and joy. We have a lifetime to learn about faith, and firstly, we understand that faith is about trusting and believing in worthy beings and ideas. The main fundamental is the faith in God, and that is paramount to trusting your entire life for good. Next, we should have faith in people and in ourselves, for we are the main intelligent living beings on Earth. We may also have faith in peaceful and good science, faith in beautiful and positive art expression, faith in good knowledge, faith in the human civilization system of law and authority for order and peace. All we need is good faith for a good harmony in a world of order and peace.

Religion teaches us about good faith, and people have faith in the various religious leaders, like Jesus Christ, Sidharta Gutama Buddha and Nobu Mohammed for their outstanding character that shines like a shield of hope in the blessed daylight. I am a Christian at heart, and I understand the qualities of Jesus Christ, a man who is completely humble, peaceful, pious, forgiving, good-natured, wise and righteous. He is a moral hero in my eyes and will always stand as a pillar of the light. Sidharta Gutama is a man who loves the people, care for the people and will forgo his inherited riches to be with the people. He is a source of compassion and generousity. Nobu Mohammed is about peace, about nature and about compassion. Well, I admire all three of them, and from my honest experience, I am closely affiliated to Jesus Christ. We are taught by our religious elders to have faith in these man of saintly virtues.

Well, when we think of our modern day situation, we have faith in our leaders, our teachers, our security force and our bosses, for they are the people we have to look up to in reality. Like Lee Kuan Yew promotes a multi-racial and multi-religious Singapore based on peace and harmony, he is like our champion. Goh Chok Tong promotes a gracious society. Lee Hsien Loong promotes our economic health. All these leaders are working wisely to make sure that we, their people, will live well in joy and peace. For me, a commoner by status, will always find trust and inspiration in the good deeds and speech by others, and especially more so when the others happens to be people you have to listen or look up to. A common example is about our parents. Whenever our parents give us an example of love, we feel the joy inside us, for they are the closest people to us. A golden rule is that we feel easier to listen and obey people whom we feel have goodness and love in them. Well, most of these human factors are based on faith, and we need the faith.

Like a bird perched on a rock, good faith will elevate us to a higher level of trust and joy. Remember trust walk, a man who is blindfolded understand the faith will give him comfort in following the lead of the person who can see. Like faith takes time for cultivation, good environment and good endeavours keeps faith growing in health. The bird in my garden leap up the rock like a symbol of faith, each level giving new joy and love, and this bird reaches a good height, feeling contented, leaving the top level sacred, as we human should understand our limitation and be contented once we received enough.