Blessed

The dictionary definition that applies to the kind of blessed I'm talking about is "divinely or supremely favored, fortunate."

I've decided to blog this because I can't seem to get out of my meditative mood and three meditative letters to everyone, some who I KNOW are not interested in my meditative thoughts, seem a bit much.

I was reflecting, when I woke up this morning, that every moment of every day is a moment in which we reassess our own faith. Most moments it is not so consciously done. If we choose to identify with any particular faith system, at any moment something can happen that causes us to wonder if we have chosen correctly. Usually such moments are not really all that traumatic or challenging to truths we have have long accepted. Occasionally something happens or someone says something that makes us go back to the Books, if only to reaffirm what we already know to be true. Seldom is there a moment that makes us seriously doubt. Probably a good thing - those moments are painful, traumatic, and often, life-changing, for good or for bad - and even that latter is a human judgment, not a Divine one. However, serious doubt can and does happen, and while probably useful because without it we would likely become complacent - and not genuinely be searching for the truth - not something a person wishes to go through every day.

And when we get over them such that we either confirm what we already believe or choose a different path entirely, it is still only one such moment - or series of moments - in an entire lifetime of moments in which God can allow or assist us to change our views entirely. Which brings me to the idea of being "blessed."

There is a passage from Baha'u'llah that goes thus: Blessed are the steadfast; blessed are they that stand firm in His Faith.

My entire life I have been reading such passages as "Rewarded are they". Because I have remained a Baha'i all my life, have managed, through many trials and tests of my faith to continue to believe in Baha'u'llah, I have imagined myself "rewarded", if not in this life, though possibly that, then definitely in the life to come. It occurred to me this morning that I have misunderstood it all my life. "Blessed" is closer to being a "recipient of grace" than it is "rewarded." "Rewarded" implies that I have done something to merit remaining firm in my faith in Baha'u'llah through all the individual moments in my life when I might have chosen otherwise. "Blessed" actually means that, thanks to Him, I am still a Baha'i. It is very, very humbling.