“Comfort is the enemy of greatness. If you want vast improvement, you have to get uncomfortable doing it. Get used to it!” states Rick Houcek, an unparalleled motivational speaker who addressed the last session of the Family Business Forum sponsored monthly by Virginia Tech at the Higher Ed Center in Roanoke, which The Roanoke Tribune has the unique privilege of being a part of. Of all the interesting and informative sessions previously presented, Rick Houcek not only filled every fleeting moment with knowledge, the wisdom of experience, and the challenge of change, but continues to stay connected with participants who chose to do so; through his “High Voltage Leadership” bi-monthly newsletter (free of charge) featuring “Exhilarating Strategies for Building Businesses and Transforming Lives.”
Seeking and confining one’s self to perceived “comfort zones” is the equal opportunity destroyer of initiative that retards physical societal and spiritual growth.
Ironically, included in the Baha’i Holy Writings is a similarly strong emphasis pertaining to the attitude and treatment of children, “the most precious treasure any community can possess, for in them are the promise and guarantee of the future. They are a trust no community can neglect with impunity.” High priority is placed on “an all-embracing love of children, a love that demands discipline, the courage to accustom children to hardship, not to indulge their whims or leave them entirely to their own devices” nor at the mercy of the unscrupulous devices of others.
This brings us full circle to the keyword which is the pivotal point of all creation–Love which, like God, no one really understands, nor its full significance. What most associate with the word is not love but lust–for transitory things perceived to be equated with happiness, also transitory and short-lived when based upon changing circumstances which ultimately changes the love attached to it.
Most of the world’s problems derive from a lack of love–for one’s self, creating low self-esteem and self-respect, and subsequently for others. Marriage vows are generally made to each other based on currently existing circumstances that in today’s fast-paced society are extremely short-lived in comparison, as are far too many marriages. In Baha’i marriages, vows are made only to God, changeless in the past, changeless in the future.
Love also is of God, however, you perceive Him, which transcends into the love of, respect, and reverence for His creation. As the love of God nurtures, all commitments become channeled through Him, reducing the frustration of being or not being appreciated or accepted by others, or our inevitable judgment of who is or is not deserving of what. Once experiencing the loving, appreciative acceptance of God for whatever is done “for the least of these you have done for Me,” life becomes much easier to bear. Should our prayers be answered as we recite the Lord’s Prayer, “ . . . and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”…most of us would be in pretty rough shape.
Man is the sum of all the degrees of imperfection and yet possesses the degrees of perfection we study in the Baha’i Holy Writings. In no other species in the world of existence is there such a difference, contrast, contradiction, and opposition as in the species of man. Briefly, all the perfections and virtues and all the vices are qualities of man. Therefore in this new unparalleled day of God, we read, “Man is in the highest degree of materiality and at the beginning of spirituality; at the end of imperfection and at the beginning of perfection. Today a new Messenger brings the old message of love complete with blueprints for a new maturity of mankind.
