Follow the 19 Day Challenge on Latest Posts. Read about the 19 Day Challenge below.
Every year, Baha’is all over the world fast from sunrise to sundown for 19 days, ending on the first day of spring (March 1st- March 20th). The Fast is a time of spiritual renewal and reconnection. We would like to invite you to join us during this time of spiritual renewal by participating in the 19 day spiritual challenge! You don’t have to fast. Fasting has many bounties but if you are not a Baha’i, you have no obligation to do it. We designed this challenge to allow others to participate in the bounties that come from simply dedicating a period of time to spiritual renewal and finding your true self, and then expressing your true self in action.
Here is the challenge-
1. Dedicate a few moments every morning and evening to spiritual reconnection and reflection. We will post inspiring passages and music to enjoy and reflect upon. Music is a ladder for our souls and can bring spiritual words to life in ways we might not have appreciated otherwise. We will have short passage assignments, taken from the great scriptures of the world, to internalize, in addition to short readings to put everything in context.
2. Give up a bad habit, or two, or three. So often, we lose our true selves in bad habits that pull us down, and away from the nobility and beauty that lies within us. As part of the challenge, we ask that you refrain from drinking alcohol or using drugs, and avoid relationships that you know don’t reflect who you truly are in your heart (only you can define what that means!). Use this time to remind yourself who you truly are.
Each day, starting on the morning of Monday March 1st, we will post on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds the passage for the day, one before sunrise and the other before sunset, each day until Friday March 19th. We encourage you to meditate on the meaning of those passages.
Join us on each Thursday during this period at 7pm for the zoom-based “Tea House” discussion. We will highlight the passages that had been presented during that week as part of the Challenge and discuss them! True spiritual conversation.
The 19 day challenge does not require you to sign up for anything. Just follow the posts on our Blog, mirrored on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and do the Challenge!
19 Day Challenge Theme- "Finding your Beloved"
"The beginning of religion is love for God ... and its end is to manifest that love to His servants."
This beautiful quote by Baha’u’llah expresses the essence of religion. All true religions have come to illumine our sense of nobility and bring unity to world of humanity. For many people down through the centuries, the “love of God” is the most beautiful and fulfilling love that can be experienced by human beings. That may seem to be a strange statement, given how bombarded we are with ideas that other forms of material love are so important, but those who have truly felt it wouldn’t give it up for any other love in the world. Once the fire of genuine spirituality is lit within us, it becomes the fuel that we use to meet the challenges of life with purpose and clarity.
But what do we mean when we talk about the “love of God”? What are we loving when we “love God”? It seems that we are not loving the Force behind all existence in any direct sense, as that is too abstract and not something that would spur us to any action or virtue. How can you love a force? And for many people, just the concept of God has become uncomfortable, so the idea of the “love of God” is equally foreign.
Though it’s impossible to exhaust the full meaning of the “love of God”, we can say that it is a term religions have used to express a spiritual emotion, a transcendent love of all that is noble and true, within us and outside of us. And we all feel it, no matter what our professed belief. It is innately part of every human being. Indeed, it is our most important part. The whole purpose of religion, as expressed in Baha’u’llah’s quote above, is to help us find that transcendent and noble part that exists in each of us, make it the center of our lives, and express it in love for others. Jesus taught us this as well, when he proclaimed that the “greatest commandment” was to “love God with all your heart and and all your soul and with all your mind” and that the second greatest was to “love your neighbor as yourself”.
During the 19 day challenge, we will draw on passages from the Baha’i writings and the other great religions, music, and other inspiring material- to try and break through the “language” and feel the true meaning behind the “love of God”, to find our Beloved within us.