Isn’t is so?

There are some common points in all faith.

Almost all practices of faith have tenets embracing love, righteousness, forgiveness, holiness, etc.

Let’s talk about love.

It is preached in all faiths; the practices may differ but most certainly the model differs. I mean the source of the love and the way the love is maintained in spite of the evil, and the effort to love [and more].

So God wants us to love, then He has to be the source of love. He being the source of love, He must give it to us, and then demonstrate what love is; how it is to be given. Then He must be a loving relational God.

He created parenthood and observing pure and undefiled parental love endears me to God. I never quite experienced the bliss of a happy family, growing up. I can only get it vicariously or gladly receive it from surrogate parents.

Thank God, it has not destroyed my belief in wholesome love. The world of a young child is all about receiving parental love.

Under normal circumstances, the child:

• at infant stage, gets comforted, fed, cleaned, doted upon whenever he or she cries
• at a toddler stage, never worries and bugs Daddy about the destination when on a car journey cos he knows his Daddy is in charge
• at primary school stage, he or she runs to Mommy / Daddy when bullied, fearful, or not feeling well
• at teenage, finds security / acceptance at home in the midst of all the typical struggles of teenage life
• into adulthood, learns to do the same for others that which he / she has received from their parents and blesses his / her parents, look after them and provide for their every need

The above is a very condensed version of what the journey of love could be for a person under normal circumstances. Simplified, no doubt, for illustration sake.

The love of the parents are specific towards the child, from a specific source for a targeted recipient. There is nothing ‘relative’ about it, and certainly the insect / table / sofa do not love the child the way the parents do.

As someone who has received much from surrogate parents, I know it is not the same as coming from biological parents. If everything is relative, and love is a mere energy between 2 beings, then what is the big deal if I don’t get it from my biological parents? Well, it does. Speak to all who never got it for biological parents, you will know it does.

My point being, love has a specific source ie God and it is given in a relationship [like a parent to child] to a specific being [me].

This logic is the same for righteousness, forgiveness, holiness – the tenets of faith. It has to have a source ie these values / traits have to come from God.

Men cannot strive to achieve these traits, even no matter how many lifetimes we think we have. The origin or source has to give it and we must receive it, cherish it, use it and grow it.

Parenthood is one analogy. Organisation relationship is another analogy.

How many CEOs can an organisation have? Borrowing from the ‘relative paradigm’, it should not matter whether you report to this or that person, since everyone is a CEO. Can you imagine an organisation functioning like this?

Both parenthood and organisational structure [and other forms of relational structure, like bees in a colony, family of lions, monkeys etc.] have distinct hierarchy of authority structure and there are specific source and recipients in that chain.

I know I am incapable of doing good all the time, I have thoughts I am not proud to share about – times of anger, unforgiveness, envy, selfish ambition – and so I know I need help from my God to redeem me and equip me. I can receive the help here and now and not wait till next lifetimes to redeem myself….

Hierarchy is not an evil thing – in fact without it, is anarchy. I would rather have a single clear source of righteous ruler – a King – than many equal status vigilante running the show.

Well, that’s my point of view.