When I was younger, I used to pray fervently to the Gods of Important Things. Gods of Important Things, in my view, are the big guys who take care of things like birth and death, family, health, exam grades and careers. I remember very well my moments of deep prayer - standing in front of the altar in my parents’ old house praying so earnestly (everyday) for straight A1s in SRP and SPM, and then praying even more (this time a bit more solemnly) for As in A-Levels and STPM. I remember making several pacts with the Gods of Important Things, offering a bit of something in exchange of something else. I have prayed for a lot of other things – happiness, longevity of my parents, ambition, health, peace, the environment, even prayed for complementary goals such as the school prefect position so that it helps with my scholarship application.

So do Gods of Important Things listen to our prayers and grant what we want? Of course, they do. They are Gods, aren’t they? They can make anything happen. BUT slowly, I started realizing that with Gods of Important Things, everything is a bit of a business transaction. They deliver something for you, but take some form of ‘payment’ without you knowing it until it’s all paid. They make it look like they have granted what you wished for, but in the wider scheme of things, you realize that you have dealt with guys who will balance the account out, one way or the other, and are pretty calculative at it.

For example, we pray for grades. We get good grades and good university placement. But then, we lose so many years in the pursuit of these grades, sometimes up to 10 years of the best time of our youth. And then we end up in workplaces slogging even more than ever. So much for grades!

Another example - we pray for good health. And subconsciously, we go to bed early, go for rigorous gym regimes and eat only what’s healthy, missing out on all the late nights, endless ‘lepaking’ and free eating. We get good health, only to realize that we have tied ourselves up in a regimented and rigid lifestyle that we have to observe for the rest of our life.

So dealing with Gods of Important Things is like working out a deal with some really shrewd guys. And it gets so complex and baffling when the outcomes from one thing cancel out the outcomes of another.

At the same time, I realize that I also do pray to the Gods of Petty Things. Examples of Gods of Petty Things are the gods we pray to when we are about to start a webinar presentation and the PC speakers don’t seem to work and there are about 70 online attendees waiting and we start hoping that by God’s grace the sound comes back on; or when we have an outdoor party planned and it looks like it’s going to rain, and we stand in the doorway praying that it doesn’t. Or when you are running late for an appointment and there’s massive traffic jam and you pray that it clears quickly. Or when you go to the market on Sundays and pray that the fish they packed for you is not from last month’s stock. And also when you book for a movie at the last minute and pray that there are some nice back row seats still available.

So just like the other Gods, do Gods of Petty Things deliver on our wishes too? That’s the thing. I find Gods of Petty Things either deliver or don’t, but whatever they do, these guys are up-front with their decisions and they have no hidden terms. You get what you get and you don’t get what you don’t get. Pray for the rain to go away, but it rains anyway – so you know that you party is going to be drab. Book tickets and you actually get some really nice back row seats and you know it’s going to be a good show. No extras, no promises and no surprises. And I like the frankness where if God doesn’t want something to happen, he lets you know there and then, so that you don’t rack your brain working out which are the things you are supposed to change, and which are the things you are supposed to let go.

So as I get older, I have started a stronger and a closer relationship with the Gods of Petty Things. And I find myself moving away from wishing for anything significant or ‘important’ and replacing them with petty wishes and wants. And I have learnt to collaborate with the Gods of Petty Things to deliver the bigger things in life. Small petty things like a good supply of fresh fish in the market every Sunday really means that I get to make really good wholesome family meals at home and in the long term, deliver some health and family outcomes. Working with Gods of Petty Things is always so light on the mind, and on the soul because we don’t have to have any fixed or definite goals, so there’s no end success or failure. We just nudge ourselves along in the journey, one day at a time, leaving the final destination to God’s own decision. So that’s more or less my relationship with Gods. There’s one other class of Gods though, which I call the Gods of the Ultimate Things – for things which are part of your soul, and stuff that you cannot live without. Love comes in this category, and because it is everything, and because I know that praying in this category would mean that you are dealing with the most powerful of the Gods, I just resign to my status as a mere human, clueless of this entire setup called the Universe and Life, and will not want to ever knock on these guys.

So, that’s it. I am not a spiritual type of person, but this is as much as I can say about my Gods.