![avatar Ancientgods](/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBbW0zIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--336c8674f1675588b1b1f4b55fbe21db62e83d14/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCem9MWm05eWJXRjBTU0lJYW5CbkJqb0dSVlE2RTNKbGMybDZaVjkwYjE5bWFXeHNXd2RwQWhnQ2FRS0FBZz09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--cbc8d3660f55abdf5c71b7247b025534d10059ac/godslore%20logo.jpg)
Ancientgods
@Ancientgods
Reportar usuaria inapropiada
¿Qué es inapropiado de la usuaria?
Reportar usuaria inapropiada
¿Qué es inapropiado de la usuaria?
Nature as a Spiritual Metaphor: Wind and the Will of God
If God is All-Loving and All-Merciful, why would He allow so much pain and suffering in the world and cause such severe hardship to befall us?
I am unspeakably fortunate to have never experienced extreme poverty, been diagnosed with a debilitating or life-threatening illness, suffered the sudden loss of a family member, or experienced any other type of severe calamity that unfortunately so many have experienced. But tragedy in some shape or form seems to befall us all at some point in our lives: it was Shoghi Effendi, guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and great-grandson of Bahá'u'lláh, who described this life as "the home of suffering which we call our earth” (Lights of Guidance, p. 207). When such suffering occurs, many of us inevitably wonder why a benevolent God would order our lives to be afflicted with such hardship.
As a preliminary disclaimer: I have no idea. And I doubt that anyone else can say with absolute certainty why a particular trial or tribulation befell a particular person. If we believe that God is indeed an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being, it seems that we must also accept the fact that, as fundamentally inferior creatures, we will never fully understand God's will. As Bahá'u'lláh says:
So how can we fulfill our purpose and seek to better understand God's will when it is essentially unknowable? Although this seems paradoxical, in other passages Bahá'u'lláh makes it clear that while God is fundamentally unknowable in His essence, we are still able to understand aspects of God's will in different ways. One of them, and the most important from a Bahá'í perspective, is to get to know God's newest messenger and become familiar with His teachings. He is the Messenger of God, whose purpose is to let humanity know God's will and help us draw closer to divinity. Another is through prayer and meditation, a practice central to all religious traditions. But perhaps a less obvious way is to study something that is not at all "religious" in the traditional sense: nature.
Bahá'u'lláh tells us in a number of passages that becoming familiar with the characteristics and features of nature is a way to also become more aware of aspects of God's will. The following selection is an example of this teaching:
godslore.com
No sigue a nadie ni a ninguna actividad.