In peril? There's a Help for that.

Why study a prayer with another Baha'i, rather than just simply praying?

Because we forget the obvious.  We forget that foolish questions have mighty answers.

"My turn to ask a question?  Okay, um ... God is the Help in what?"

Recently, amid the stressors of full-time work, part-time schooling, full-time advancingtheprocessofentrybytroops, and more than a little bit of sleep deprivation, I sat down, fully miserable, and realized,

"Crap.  I'm in peril.  Help!"


It made me laugh.  The stupid snot-still-running-down-the-face-from-crying laugh that you never let anyone but your houseplants see.  How could it not?  It was the most ridiculous realization that could come to me.

But it did come.  And what is sobering is that it might not have.  I could have continued saying the words over and over again, no longer giving them any thought after 12 years of daily repetition.  Because the answer is so obvious.  Because the question is so stupid.

It is a worthy endeavor to visit another believer and study a prayer together.  It is worthy!  It doesn't make you a fool to study the beauty of a single, simple shell by the edge of the sea.  

May we never consider ourselves too grand for the answers enshrined in the Holy Writings of Baha'u'llah.
May we never feel so superior that we no longer feel comfortable asking our fellow believers and our souls, "What does this mean?"
May we learn to speak a single language, a language of shared understanding that is rooted in the knowledge of the Words of God.
May we always find a way to remember that there is Help for our peril.

And through all of this, may we all find our path to the Self-Subsisting.