Seventy and Two: Musings on Meaning

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel (Heb. He Struggles with God), because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel (Heb. Face of God),  saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,  and he was limping because of his hip.
Genesis 32:24-31

Originally this blog was intended to be dedicated to Bahá’í apologetics. Since I started the blog I have strayed from that a bit, and become more and more convinced of the need for a good bit of Bahá’í apologetics online. So I have a question for you all, non-Bahá’í, born Bahá’í, convert, ex-Bahá’í, enrolled, unenrolled, etc. What issues in the Bahá’í Faith have you struggled to understand, accept, reconcile? What issues may have caused you trouble accepting the Faith, have tested your Faith, caused you to resign, stand in the way from accepting the Faith, or presented challenges to overcome? I mean theological issues, social teachings, practices, anything. If you want to give me detail you can, if you don’t fine.You are free to comment anonymously, or to email me at shalomatnight @ gmail . com

I will then be looking at these issues, studying the writings, my own experiences/beliefs and those of others and sharing my thoughts. There are issue that I have had these experiences with and I will share them. I would like to explore practical apologetics, especcially as I  unfortunately see Bahá’ís online acting in ways online that I would call polemics under the guise of apologetics. Earnest discussion of faith, proofs and evidences, and life experiences are the apologetics I want to pursue.

The authors of Bahá’í Perspectives – my new favorite Bahá’í blog – keep churning out wonders. Their latest post is a gem for Bahá’ís and interested non-Bahá’ís. It approaches the modern dating paradigm from a Bahá’í Perspective, identifies the problems, and searches through the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith for solutions:

Quit Playing Games
It seems that from culture to culture, no matter if you’re from Seychelles or France, Nova Scotia or the Yucatan, certain things are universally appealing. The pursuit of love, of a relationship, sitting perhaps atop the list of things people are seeking. Since the appearance of humans on this planet, one could safely guess, we have been trying to woo one another or convince one another that we are worthy of being wooed.

Bahá’í Perspectives is the newest addition to my blogroll, and this post did it. I advise every fellow blog-fiend to give them a gander.

I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face.
Rabi’á al-Basra

Everyone has experienced synchronicity. You learn a new word and suddenly you hear it everywhere? You start thinking about a concept and people around you start bringing it up? Wikipedia defines synchronicity in a very succinct manner:

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related. In order to be ’synchronistic’, the events must be related to one another temporally, and the chance that they would occur together by random chance must be very small.

I have come to believe, simply from my experience, that synchronicity is very often a divine message. A way of God and the Universe nudging you in the right direction. Although it may be perfectly explainable logically, it is anomalous in our perception. At the very least it cannot be ignored. In my life I have one great experience of synchronicity. Throughout the months before I discovered the Baha’i Faith, while still in a limbo of developing panentheism from my atheism, I kept thinking that a religion ought to be founded that united the Abrahamic Faiths and took the attitude of Islam to other religions (Every people being sent a Prophet). During this time, the Baha’i Faith popped up quite a few times in my life. So, from my experience in life and the experiences of others relayed to me, I strongly believe that synchronicity at least demands our respect and attention.

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