A Singaporean In Australia

A pastor is a very important person to a worshipers of the faith. After all, that is a man guides them, brings people together with love, brings the presence of God into the darkest circumstances and generally put up with their crap. So when a Singaporean made up her decision to leave her sunny homeland to some faraway land, it was paramount to seek blessings for this important man. Hopefully, the man would sooth her nerves and cast doubts to the abyss, gone, gone. No. Her pastor told her she was making a gamble, a gamble on their futures, with the opportunity costs too high on the other end of the wager. That was what I read, I didn't make this up.

I was really surprised a pastor spoke about opportunity costs. These days, pastors are not shepherds anymore but savvy financial managers. They have to be, to remain relevant in this modernized world. Thus aside from guidance on faith and carrying out movements that change the world, a pastor may require to dish out timely financial advice to the church faithful. Ah, the quest to be world class doesn't stop at the gates of the holy places.

I'm free thinker. I'm open to any concept, so long as it makes sense. That pastor made sense. Migration is a gamble, no matter how prepared one can be. No guarantees. A pastor cannot lie and he spoke the truth. Bless the man. On the other hand, even as a free thinker I can understand what faith means to the religious. I also understand to the religious - the omnipotent God follows them wherever they go and watches every of their single move. The pastor doesn't.

I can also understand how it feels to see tithes going the other way. It feels like a dog trainer who turns his prized dog into a world champion only to see it stolen by an animal poacher the next day. No one likes it. Opportunity costs, man. Perfectly understandable.

Every time we talked about memorable past memories, the Singaporean Mum, M, would tell me how God shown her the way and brought her to me so that we could help her (did we?) open her Perth life. It was God's will how well her son is coping here now as compared to his schooling adventures in Singapore. It certainly appeared to me that God has no boundaries when it comes to taking care of his faithfuls. In fact, God may be shouting at this female protagonist to go forth and seek happiness. For a day too long in constant anguish is a day of opportunity cost in happiness.