Coming Out Of The Dark By Gloria Estefan
He Ain' t The Leavin' Kind By Rascal Flatts
The Man I Want To Be By Chris Young
Writings On Tests And Difficulties
"While a man is happy he may forget his God; but when grief comes and sorrows overwhelm him, then will he remember his Father who is in Heaven, and who is able to deliver him from his humiliations.
Men who suffer not, attain no perfection. The plant most pruned by the gardeners is that one which, when the summer comes, will have the most beautiful blossoms and the most abundant fruit.
The labourer cuts up the earth with his plough, and from that earth comes the rich and plentiful harvest. The more a man is chastened, the greater is the harvest of spiritual virtues shown forth by him. A soldier is no good General until he has been in the front of the fiercest battle and has received the deepest wounds."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 50)
"Tests and trials only cause agitation to weak hearts. But the pure souls, a hundred thousand tests are but to them like mirage, imagination and shadow. The shadow cannot withstand the rays of the sun and pure fragrances of holiness will not be concealed through the doubts of the beetle. The headache of wavering (or hesitancy) will not affect those exhilarated with the wine of the love of God."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v2, p. 251)
"To the sincere ones, tests are as a gift from God, the Exalted, for a heroic person hasteneth, with the utmost joy and gladness, to the tests of a violent battlefield, but the coward is afraid and trembles and utters moaning and lamentation. Likewise, an expert student prepareth and memorizeth his lessons and exercises with the utmost effort, and in the day of examination he appeareth with infinite joy before the master. Likewise, the pure gold shineth radiantly in the fire of test. Consequently, it is made clear that for holy souls, trials are as the gift of God, the Exalted; but for weak souls they are an unexpected calamity. This test is just as thou hast written: it removeth the rust of egotism from the mirror of the heart until the Sun of Truth may shine therein. For, no veil is greater than egotism and no matter how thin that covering may be, yet it will finally veil man entirely and prevent him from receiving a portion from the eternal bounty."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 371)
Music Bibliography
Coming Out Of The Dark by Gloria Estefan is on the album Into The Light
He Ain't The Leavin' Kind by Rascal Flatts is on the album Me And My Gang
The Man I Want To Be by Chris Young is on the album The Man I Want To Be
All songs are available on iTunes
All songs are available on iTunes
