Thank you for joining us on this!  We hope you find it spiritually refreshing and enlivening. We’re going to take a very unique approach in the next 19 days and draw on the scriptures of three great religions- Christianity, Islam, and the Baha’i Faith- to try and grow spiritually and as people.  As this is a program inspired by the Baha’i teachings, we are going to view these religions as Baha’is view them- not as separate “religions”- but as part of One Religion- the “changeless Faith of God”- as Baha’u’llah referred to it.  This is therefore not an “inter-religious” program, but one that views each of these great revelations as part of one continuous whole.  It’s a unique perspective, and takes a little getting used to, but it is extraordinarily enriching once you get your mind and heart around it.

We should note that there is no intention to exclude the other great revelations from God, and Baha’is accept that there were many others. We could have equally used passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Bhagavad Gita, or others, but we wanted to keep it simple. 

Our other focus is on this concept of the “voice of God”- that there is an inner melody to the diverse forms of language and concepts in these scriptures- a “voice” that you learn to recognize when you listen to them with your heart.  That “voice” is humanity’s true Beloved, one that these scriptures all tell use we need to learn to recognize and follow.  It’s a “spiritual thing”, but you’ll know it when you feel it.  Some have compared it to the voice of their mother or father. Your mother spoke to you in different ways- sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully- and said many things, but it was still your mother’s voice and you knew it when you heard it. Same idea here.

The theme of this year’s challenge is “Finding your Beloved”. Even the title betokens a more intimate idea of God than many people may be used to, but it is at the center of what people feel in their heart when they develop a “personal relationship with God”.  Your first “assignment” is to reflect on this beautiful quote from the Bab, that expresses a sense of spiritual intimacy-

“Behold with the eye of thy heart. Verily thy truth, the truth of thy being, is the divinity of thy Lord revealed unto thee and through thee. Thou art He Himself, and He is thou thyself, except that indeed thou art that thou art, and He is that He is…Verily, God ceaselessly sheddeth His effulgence, gazeth upon thee through thee, and embraceth thee through thee. This station is thine uttermost paradise and ultimate goal.”

Even if our minds may be cluttered with all kinds of different ideas about God- different impressions, some positive, some not so much- we can all feel the beauty of this way of thinking about God.  It’s universal and that’s why we wanted to take this perspective for the Challenge.

Each morning, you will be presented with short passages to read and absorb.  We highly encourage you to try and memorize them, at least the portions of them that you find significant. It helps to internalize them and you’ll be surprised when you find yourself thinking about their words while waiting in line at the supermarket or some other down moment.  Those moments of reflection in real life can be the most enriching moments.

We will also supply music of the same passages we present when available, as music is a “ladder for our souls” and illuminates spiritual ideas. This is easier for Baha’i scriptures- particularly the Hidden Words- as Baha’is commonly put their scriptures to music.  It is not as easy for Christian scripture, as Christians did not typically put the actual words of Jesus to music, and it is not possible to find music expressing words from the Quran in English. 

The Challenge will follow an order from “inside” to “outside”- meaning we will start with trying to develop that sense of inner spirituality and how to nurture it, then move towards expressing that in the world through our actions.  So, we’ll be pretty mystical at first, more practical later, but the whole idea of religion is to transform our insides and then express that in the world, so this is the perspective we took.

In the evening, you will be presented with longer passages and alternatively “Profiles of Spirituality”- stories of some of the beloved figures of history who have truly expressed genuine spirituality in action.  Some of them will be familiar to you, others likely not, but they all exhibited amazing virtues that showed us what religion is really supposed to be about. 

Our website does not allow comments but our Facebook and Twitter pages do, so please feel free to post any thoughts or comments on those pages for others who may be doing the Challenge. If you know of something inspiring related to something we post, please share it so others can benefit as well.  And of course, feel free to share any of the content with other friends. 

Thank you again for joining us! We hope you enjoy the Challenge!