Finding Life Through Service
Section 1: The Importance of Service 1,136 words
Opening Questions
Think of someone you've known whom you admire for how much they give to others. Let's honor them: tell us about them, and what it is you admire.
Has there ever been a time you thought you were making a sacrifice, but ended up gaining more than you had imagined? Tell us about it.
Reflecting God's Light
Throughout history, humanity has pondered the fundamental questions of existence: Who are we? Why are we here?
Baha'u'llah emphasizes that we were each created out of God's infinite love and were each crafted to come to know God and to worship Him. In the Short Obligatory Prayer, we all say:
I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
What that means, and why it leads us to a life of service, is what this text aims to unpack.
In a Hidden Word, Baha'u'llah, speaking as God, says:
Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.
1
Baha'is understand being created in the image of God to mean that each of us was crafted with the ability to reflect God's light into the world: love, honesty, courage, compassion, generosity.
We are like mirrors, made to catch the divine light and cast it outward. And because we have free will, we can also turn away — choosing hate, deceit and cowardice. Life, to some extent, is a constant work of orienting toward the divine light and polishing our mirrors, so that its light can shine through us.
Abdu'l-Baha explains:
The most important thing is to polish the mirrors of hearts in order that they may become illumined and receptive of the divine light.… Our duty lies in seeking to polish the mirrors of our hearts in order that we shall become reflectors of that light and recipients of the divine bounties which may be fully revealed through them.
2
The Writings describe two sides to our nature. We have a higher, spiritual nature, capable of reflecting God's attributes — kindness, generosity, justice and love. We also have a lower, egotistical nature, pulled toward self-interest. Spiritual development is the ongoing work of subordinating the lower nature to the higher. In the Baha'i view, this is one of the central challenges of human life.
Man has two aspects: the physical, which is subject to nature, and the merciful or divine, which is connected with God.… if the divine and spiritual should triumph over the human and natural, he is, verily, an angel.
3
Facilitating The Flow of Love
Seen this way, because we are created in the image and likeness of God, we are meant to be clear channels for God's love to flow into the world. It is our ego and our attachment to the world that gets in the way.
Acting virtuously — through kindness, love, generosity — is the very means by which God's love reaches the world. Further, each of us is endowed with unique talents and abilities. They are provided to us not to be hoarded in our self-interest, but provided to us to better the world. Our unique gifts, channelled correctly, can become the "very life of all men":
O friends! Be not careless of the virtues with which ye have been endowed, neither be neglectful of your high destiny.… Ye are the stars of the heaven of understanding, the breeze that stirreth at the break of day, the soft-flowing waters upon which must depend the very life of all men.…
5
Those gifts only find merit when used in the world. Can you really be kind in the absence of another person? Can you really be generous in isolation? Virtue isn't a possession we hold; it's something that only exists in the giving. And in the giving, the mirror clears — the more we serve, the more freely the light moves through us.
Here the two halves of our purpose meet. Worship is not only what happens when we pray or turn to God in our hearts — a deed done with love is itself a kind of prayer. To lift another's burden, to act with kindness, is not merely a good thing to do; it is worship. Abdu'l-Baha says it plainly:
Strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers. Turn towards God, and seek always to do that which is right and noble. Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!
6
Giving Out While Being Refilled
Acts of service are how God's light reaches the world. We are designed to be pure channels funneling His love into it — and it is His love which is what transforms the world. The hollow reed, emptied of self, is able to channel God's love through itself to others. The perfect mirror, attuned to the sun, is able to reflect that light onto others.
But acts of selfless service, day after day, are often hard; left to our own strength alone, we soon run dry. This is why we are also provided the tools of prayer, meditation, and study of the sacred writings. Together, these three tools refill us and give us the superhuman strength to keep acting in the world.
Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, captures this rhythm of giving out and being refilled:
We must be like the fountain or spring that is continually emptying itself of all that it has and is continually being refilled from an invisible source. To be continually giving out for the good of our fellows undeterred by fear of poverty and reliant on the unfailing bounty of the Source of all wealth and all good—this is the secret of right living.
7
Shoghi Effendi lived this himself, serving from morning until night. But what does it look like in our own lives? That is what we'll explore in the next section.
Questions for Discussion
The reading says the good we do isn't finally ours, it's God's, flowing through us. Does that lift a burden off you, or take something away? How does it actually sit?
If our daily actions can be "beautiful prayers," does that change what a religious life even is? Could someone who never sets foot in a temple be living a deeply spiritual life, and could someone who prays constantly be missing it?
Section 2: The Shape of Service 1,606 words
Opening Questions
The previous section discussed how our actions can be "beautiful prayers." Think about your own work or daily responsibilities — how would it look to perform your daily tasks as beautiful prayers?
In the last section we also pictured ourselves as mirrors, made to cast God's light into the world. Have you ever caught that light coming off someone else — a moment when a person clearly reflected something more than themselves?
Orientation Toward Service
If service is how God's light reaches the world, what does it actually look like day to day? It takes many shapes.
Perhaps the clearest compass for that orientation comes from Baha'u'llah:
Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge... Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression.
8
It's a high standard. The only person who entirely lived up to it was Baha'u'llah's own son, who was so dedicated to service that the title He took for Himself was "the Servant of Baha." He provides us with an example of how to manifest such an attitude of service in one's own life.
Abdu'l-Baha's whole life was dedicated to serving others. From morning until night He visited the sick, gave away His possessions and money to the poor, and met with individuals and groups explaining the mysteries of God's Faith. He also advised others that they, too, should orient their lives toward service.
One story that is frequently told is the story of Lua Getsinger being asked to take care of an ill man:
One day Lua was with Abdu'l-Baha when He told her that He was too busy to call upon a friend of His who was very ill and poor, and that He wished her to go in His place — to take him food and care for him as Abdu'l-Baha had been doing. He told her where the man was to be found, and she went gladly, proud that Abdu'l-Baha should trust her with this mission. She returned quickly. "Master," she exclaimed, "surely you cannot realize to what a terrible place you sent me. I almost fainted from the awful stench, the filthy rooms, the degrading condition of that man and his house. I fled lest I contract some terrible disease."
Sadly and sternly, Abdu'l-Baha said to her, "Dost thou desire to serve God? Serve thy fellow man, for in him dost thou see the image and likeness of God." He told her to go back to the man's house: if it was filthy, she should clean it; if her brother was dirty, she should bathe him; if he was hungry, she should feed him. She was not to return until it was done. Many times had He done this for the man Himself — could she not serve him once?
The lesson Abdu'l-Baha wished to instill in Lua is not sentimental sympathy but a fundamental spiritual principle: the face of God is to be found in every human being, and taking care of another is therefore sacred service.
Our Professions
Serving the person in front of us isn't reserved for dramatic moments. Most of it happens through the most ordinary channel there is: our daily work.
The Baha'i writings raise all work — arts, sciences, crafts and trades — to the rank of worship if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity.
When asked in London whether prayer could take the form of action, Abdu'l-Baha answered directly:
In the Baha'i Cause arts, sciences and all crafts are (counted as) worship. The man who makes a piece of notepaper to the best of his ability, conscientiously, concentrating all his forces on perfecting it, is giving praise to God. Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity. This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer. A physician ministering to the sick, gently, tenderly, free from prejudice and believing in the solidarity of the human race, he is giving praise.
9
Teaching the Faith
If all honest work can be worship, the Writings still lift one form of service above the rest: sharing the message of Baha'u'llah with others. Shoghi Effendi called this the highest service of all: "The greatest service the Baha'is can render their countrymen, and indeed the whole of suffering mankind, is to pursue confidently and uninterruptedly the task of establishing the Faith of the Father among all men."
Why hold it so high? Shoghi Effendi points to the root of the world's troubles:
Indeed, the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is a lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind, that people in general no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we should call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence. The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious.
10
Most of the world has still never heard the name Baha'u'llah, and only those who have themselves been moved by His teachings can carry them to others. The Universal House of Justice puts the urgency plainly:
There is no other aggregation of human beings who can claim to have raised up a system with the demonstrated capacity to unite all of God's children in one world-embracing Order. This achievement places us not only in a position of incomparable strength, but more particularly in one of inescapable responsibility. Does not every one of us therefore have a divine obligation to fulfill, a sacred duty to perform towards every other one who is not yet aware of the call of God's latest Manifestation? Time does not stop, does not wait. With every passing hour a fresh affliction strikes at a distracted humanity. Dare we linger?
11
Serving the Community
Service also flows through the life of the community itself. Baha'is have no clergy, so each member of the community has the honor of participating in service.
The affairs of each community — local, national, and international — are guided by elected Baha'i councils, called Assemblies. The Writings speak in surprising language about the Assemblies calling them "shining lamps and heavenly gardens" in which "the spirit of life streameth in every direction." This kind of service asks that order and efficiency always come with "an equal degree of love, of devotion, and of spiritual development."
Beyond these elected bodies, members serve in countless other capacities too. Some organize the observance of Holy Days, some facilitate discussion groups for newcomers, some teach classes for children and youth. And service isn't only what an institution asks of you: each person is encouraged to use their own ingenuity, finding fresh ways to meet needs and move the community forward.
A Meaningful Life
Underneath every one of these forms of action — work, teaching, community — service is about one thing: opening ourselves as channels for divine love to flow through us. The Universal House of Justice explains:
Ultimately, the power to transform the world is effected by love, love originating from the relationship with the divine, love ablaze among members of a community, love extended without restriction to every human being. This divine love, ignited by the Word of God, is disseminated by enkindled souls through intimate conversations that create new susceptibilities in human hearts, open minds to moral persuasion, and loosen the hold of biased norms and social systems so that they can gradually take on a new form… You are channels for this divine love; let it flow through you to all who cross your path.
12
There is a paradox at the heart of all this. We're taught today that a life well lived is one that carefully guards its time and energy — that holding on is how we stay full. Yet it's the people who give themselves away most freely who seem most alive. Service doesn't empty us. It hands back the very things we were chasing all along: connection, love, and meaning. The fullest life, it turns out, is the one we give away.
Questions for Discussion
The reading calls teaching the Faith the "greatest service." Why do you think the Baha'i writings emphasize sharing the message of Baha'u'llah with others so pointedly?
One passage we read ends by calling each of us "a channel" for divine love. In practice, what have you found clogs your channel? Is there anything we can do as a group to support each other to keep our channels clear?
References
- Baha'u'llah, The Hidden Words
- Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace
- Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace
- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings
- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings
- Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks
- Shoghi Effendi
- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings
- Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks
- Shoghi Effendi
- Universal House of Justice, 1998
- Universal House of Justice, 2020