home visits

so as we reside in tempe, az for the week we are going around doing musical home visits. (home visits: trips to peoples homes to build stronger relationships; usually share some prayers/have devotions, deepen/talk about spiritual reality and the baha'i faith, or pretty much whatever people want to do with a goal of being of service to each other). yesterday we made our way to an apartment complex and knocked on the door of a man who recently declared. at the first knock no one answered. after the second a dazed man opened the door and then quickly ran back to his chair. our friend, who had visit the man before, walked in to talk to him. the man broke down in tears and eventually asked the rest of us to come in to say prayers. so the five us walked in and we all sat down. you could tell the man was in bad shape; he was alone in his dark apartment and seemed to not have had the chance to shower in days. before we started our devotions we asked him if there was anything specific in his life that he wanted us to pray for. he mumbled, "yes, my job." we started our prayers and we sang for an hour and a half. between our songs i silently prayed that he would let his spirit guides to come and help him, almost instantaneously i sensed all those who were helping him in the apartment and that apartment was packed man. in particular, i could tell that his mom was right there with him. i thought i was just visualizing and making this all up in my head, but once the devotions were over he opened up his heart and shared with us all that he is going through. his mom, he said, who he was very close to died two years ago and that he missed her so much that it became a physical pain. i told him that she is always with him in spirit, and he said, "yes, sometimes at night i see her." he went on to tell us he has been battling with depression (he was recently in the hospital for back pain and in turn, i believe, his job is in jeopardy and on top of it all he has seven siblings but no one comes to check up on him and it leaves him feeling absolutely alone). we found out that before we came he was going to go out and buy alcohol with his rent money and then come home and take all the pills he got from the hospital. instead, he said, he prayed to God and asked for help and he was very thankful when we showed up, because we are the only people that visit him. we sat there and we listened and we helped him find hope to live. the only thing that brightened his face was his nieces and nephews. "they need me," he said, "they are the ones that love me." it is love that gives us hope, it is love that gives us faith, and it is love that is God.

"Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God's holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven's kindly light, the Holy Spirit's eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul. Love is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance withe divine creation, in the realities of things. Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that sureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this might and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation." -Baha'i Writings

(loving is what it is all about.)