Time Is So Short . . .

Today's quote from the compilation Reality is, I feel, beautiful and very true but awesomely challenging.

It begins with "Soon will your swiftly-passing days be over...." and this is the constant challenge during such a short earthly existence...

Then the Writer calls the world a "rubbish-heap". Some souls may say, "Gee, I thought spiritual people were supposed to talk nice! " Well, in other Writings it is explained that the use of the term "world" means "only worldly" or "merely materialistic".

Then follows a listing of traits that we certainly expect in our Saints but, in each one of us?!? Appears so... Also appears there's a Supreme Reason to ask this of us all: "In this way, the light of divine guidance will shine forth, and the blessings of God will cradle all mankind...."

This may be the most challenging quote from Reality yet but it certainly promises a purely heavenly result.

"Soon will your swiftly-passing days be over, and the fame and riches, the comforts, the joys provided by this rubbish-heap, the world, will be gone without a trace. Summon ye, then, the people to God, and invite humanity to follow the example of the Company on high. Be ye loving fathers to the orphan, and a refuge to the helpless, and a treasury for the poor, and a cure for the ailing. Be ye the helpers of every victim of oppression, the patrons of the disadvantaged. Think ye at all times of rendering some service to every member of the human race. Pay ye no heed to aversion and rejection, to disdain, hostility, injustice: act ye in the opposite way. Be ye sincerely kind, not in appearance only. Let each one of God’s loved ones centre his attention on this: to be the Lord’s mercy to man; to be the Lord’s grace. Let him do some good to every person whose path he crosseth, and be of some benefit to him. Let him improve the character of each and all, and reorient the minds of men. In this way, the light of divine guidance will shine forth, and the blessings of God will cradle all mankind: for love is light, no matter in what abode it dwelleth; and hate is darkness, no matter where it may make its nest. O friends of God! That the hidden Mystery may stand revealed, and the secret essence of all things may be disclosed, strive ye to banish that darkness for ever and ever."

‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Selection #1, p. 3