Changing Times Blog

Baha’i by Default

(ar) There is a sentence in one of the prayers of the Báb that says “I worship Thee by virtue of Thy summoning me unto Thee, for had it not been for Thy summons I would not have worshipped Thee”.  I am always reminded when I recite it, which I do rather often, of those years I spent wandering in the desert of idle fancy having reasoned that an individual, if virtuous and intelligent enough – which I foolishly presumed myself to be – could find his or her way to God without the help of an intermediary; that religion was for those who couldn’t figure things out for themselves.  I continued to be a good, if not a well-behaved, person and spun along looking for happiness, etc., with the rest of the world until, in such a state, God found a way to pull me back to centre, skilfully keeping me in the dark until I could willingly submit to His will.

Such is the path of many a seeker and I have been reminded time after time since then that I am not done seeking and am never meant to be.  I have often been grateful for that period of my life for the sense of ownership of faith that it afforded me.   Many of my friends who were raised in the Faith have shared similar sentiments in recalling their periods of disarray, and I tended to assume it was a natural, even healthy, stage in any thinking person’s spiritual growth.  It was what separated me and mine from the fanatical others that had surrounded me in childhood – those who believed what they did because their parents told them to and who refused to explore reality for fear of hell and damnation.  Or social rejection, confusion, and a number of other very real things one might encounter in such a search.

Lately, though, particularly in studying the materials that have been created for the moral development of junior youth, I am beginning to see the advancement that will be made in this world of creation as young people are given the tools to develop their Bahá’í identity well within the bounds of the teachings of the Faith and before they go traipsing off half-cocked into the big wide world.  I see more clearly the how my generation can be understood as children of the half-light.  The prospect of a generation equipped from the beginning with the steadfastness, depth of understanding, love for God and humanity, and knowledge of their true nature that will allow them to boldly, firmly, and eloquently assert their fully-formed and wholly personal Bahá’í selves in whatever world they find themselves fills me with excitement and hope that I never expected to feel so early on in my lifetime.  I sometimes bemoan the untimeliness of my own upbringing when I think of the advantage the new young people have.  But mostly I am grateful to have been able to form part of the foundation on which they will stand and doubly so to have the opportunity to witness these finely tuned souls in action, to support and encourage them, to learn from them, and to think that my own children will, God willing, be among them.