The Source Of All Good (Words of Wisdom 1}

In the book “Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh” there is a Tablet entitled “Words of Wisdom”. This tablet consists mainly of [what I see as] definitions of certain words that often appear in scripture. I have been studying this tablet, and would like to share some of the ideas that have occurred to me regarding various passages therein. As always, these are only my personal opinions, and you are invited to share your own insights.

The first “definition” reads, “The source of all good is trust in God, submission unto His command, and contentment with His holy will and pleasure.” When I read this to a dear Christian friend of mine, he responded saying, “The source of all good is God!” In the way he said it, it seemed he saw his point as a refutation of the passage from the tablet. Any Bahá’í, indeed most any monotheist, would agree that God is the ultimate source of all good and of all the virtues. So what might this passage be saying?

In the context of this passage, I see that God, in His Bounty and Grace, showers His good (or goodness) upon us all, but we have to be willing to receive it. After all, the veils that shut us out from God are in front of each of our eyes, and we pray (in the Long Obligatory Prayer) “... make of my prayer a fire that will burn away the veils which have shut me out from Thy Beauty...” So, God tells us in this passage what we have to do and how we should be in order to receive His goodness:

We must trust in God. In this earthly life, there are many things that we tend to put our trust in: our parents, our school teachers, our government, our instincts, strategies and responses that have “worked” for us in the past, etc. What God asks of us can be counter to popular advice or what we would otherwise trust. “Love your enemies.” “Read the Divine Verses every morn and eve.” If we trust God, we not only follow His commandments, but we turn to Him for strength, for guidance, and to define the very purpose of our lives.
We must live and act in submission unto His command. God is the source of all good, but we are only good insofar as we follow His command. I believe that we should actively seek to better understand His command, and that we should embrace that command whatever it is, whatever apparent hardships may come from it.
We must find contentment with His holy will and pleasure. Everything that comes to us in our lives, I believe, can serve to teach us. I also am of the opinion that whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, it is God’s will and pleasure that we be in that situation. This point has seen much debate, but my feeling is that if we are sufficiently awake, present, and mindful we will be content that the circumstances we find ourselves in accord with God’s will. Then we can let go of our fear and resentment (or our pleasure and vanity) and follow the promptings of our higher, spiritual nature (see 1 and 2 above). Being content does not imply that we do not feel any impetus to change our circumstances. Rather, it means that we can see our circumstances with sufficient detachment to allow us to effect positive change while trusting in God and being submissive to His command.