One of the benefits of growing old is being able to look back and compare experiences (as most tend to do), some good, some not so good with many others becoming utterly ridiculous and totally unacceptable.
Consider on this earthly plane, purported to be millions of years old, how the most phenomenal explosion of knowledge and advancement in science and technology have all occurred. Since 1844–the Baha’i Era, ranging from covered wagons to interplanetary travel and from guided missiles and drones to “misguided men,” as penned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This would suggest that the seniors of today, our immediate fore-parents and ancestry, are among the most unique, having experienced the most revolutionary quantum leap ever witnessed in such relatively brief time span. However with change usually comes challenge, handled most effectively through investigation, prayerful consultation, and deliberation.
Several years ago I was mesmerized by stories of Baha’i pioneers, ranging from all levels of affluence and lack of, dedicating their lives to opening territories throughout the world over the past 100+ years to build solid administrative frameworks of “justice and love,” imperative for creating and maintaining world peace – “not only possible but inevitable!”
The choice of how it comes about however, is up to present day world leaders. According to a statement issued by the Baia’i Universal House of Justice, “World peace will come about inevitably, either through consultative will or through unimaginable horrors!” Must we persist in choosing the latter?
The beautiful sacrificial stories of choice remind me of one from a children’s book I read many years ago to a children’s class. It was of an elderly woman recalling when, at age 11, her family was among others who chose to follow Baha’u’llah, Prophet Founder of the Baha’i Revelation, upon His exile from Baghdad to Constantinople in 1863.
“Every day was kind of an awakening as I found new meaning in every detail of the trip by caravan of some 70 mules and horses, escorted by soldiers,” she recounted, the first part of which lasted 110 days,” she recalled. But looking back along the path made by the hooves of pack animals and the feet of those who walked, this child observed that the path behind was always wider and straighter than the one ahead. Day by day she began to understand the spiritual significance of things that eclipsed the grueling physical reality of the journey.
“I could see beyond myself and my own experiences the spiritual implications of things at age 11. Now I understand that for those who go first there are no trails or tracks or roads to guide the way. The path follows them. There are no footprints ahead to follow, only those we leave behind for others.
Where will our “footprints in the sands of time” lead those who follow them? This remains a great spiritual responsibility (with unfathomed bounty) for those who conscientiously choose to accept the spiritual challenge.
