# Radiant Acquiescence

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Orcella Rexford, Radiant Acquiescence, Wilmette, IL: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1937-09, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Radiant Acquiescence
> 
> Orcella Rexford
> 
> published in World Order
> 
> Wilmette, IL: Bahá'í Publishing Committee, 1937-09
> 
> The afflictions which come to humanity sometimes tend to center
> the consciousness upon the limitations. This is a veritable prison. Release
> comes by making of the will a door through which the confirmations of the
> spirit come. They come to a man or woman who accepts his life with Radiant
> Acquiescence.
> 
> — Abdu'l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy
> 
> The revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, his followers
> believe, is divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its
> outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles and
> dynamic in the influence it exerts on the hearts and minds of men.
> 
> The Bahá'í Faith recognizes
> the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of the
> unfettered search after truth, condemns all forms of superstition and
> prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote
> concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it
> constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, and ordered and
> progressive society. It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity,
> rights and privileges for both sexes, exalts work performed the spirit of
> service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary
> international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the
> establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.
> 
> — Shoghi Effendi.
> 
> ACQUIESCENCE means to "give
> in," to drop resistance, to tacitly agree. Divine acquiescence
> means to be submissive to the divine will. Everything in nature is
> acquiescent to the plan of the Universe and works in harmony with it
> except man. "Radiant acquiescence" means not only to give up
> your will to the Divine Will, but to do so joyfully and with radiance,
> knowing it is the best way in the end. The ordinary way of meeting
> the circumstances of life is to have a negative, passive submission to
> God's will and to blame every circumstance that was unfortunate on the
> "Will of God" and to be unwillingly resigned to this condition and to do
> nothing to change it. Many become bitter and at enmity with life because
> of obstacles and calamities, and their faces register discontent and
> unhappiness.
> 
> "The death of one thing is the birth of another," said Marcus Aurelius.
> "Watch the eternal course of destruction and realize that the universe
> itself sustains no harm amidst all this change. The only true good is
> religion, which teaches us to keep our guiding principles pure and
> untainted by bodily impressions. Nothing external can influence us unless
> we pronounce it good or evil. Cease your complaint and you are not hurt."
> 
> Epictetus advised: "Dare to look up to God and say, ‘Deal with me
> for the future as thou wilt, I am of the same mind as Thou art; I am Thine;
> I refuse nothing that pleases Thee; lead me where Thou wilt, clothe me in
> any dress Thou choosest; is it Thy will that I should hold the office of
> a magistrate; that I should be in the condition of a private man; stay
> here; or be an exile; be rich; be poor, I will make Thy defense to men in
> behalf of all these conditions."
> "He who frets himself because things do not happen just as he would
> have them, and secedes and separates himself from the law of the universal
> nature, is but a sort of an ulcer of the world."
> Be acquiescent and things will change. God closes one door and opens
> another.
> "Is anyone afraid of change?" asked Aurelius "I would gladly know what
> can be done without it? And what is dearer and more suitable to your
> universal nature? Pray, must not your wood be transformed (i.e., into fire)
> before your bath can be ready for you? Must not your meat be changed to
> make it fit to nourish you? Indeed what part of life can go forward
> without alteration? Now in all likelihood a change in your condition may
> be as serviceable to the world in general as those alterations above
> mentioned are to you."
> When we are radiantly acquiescent our fears and worries disappear,
> what we ourselves cannot overcome or accomplish, we place in the hands of
> God, living in the faith that God can and will make all things well, and
> as our faith is, so is it always done unto us. When you feel that you
> live within God's protection you will never fear, you know you are safe and
> secure; fully protected at all times and nothing but good can come to you.
> If we would only learn radiant acquiescence. Since things cannot always
> be as we wish them it is better for us to acquiesce to realize that after
> all in the great Divine plan it may be better for us that they are changed,
> therefore let us be glad!
> When things do not give you pleasure, proceed instead to create pleasure
> in your own heart and soul, and you can if you will always be glad. Besides
> things will change for the better if you continue in the spirit of
> rejoicing. When things do not please you, resolve to please yourself
> by being glad. When evil befalls you consider the fact that the
> good that is yet in your possession is many times as great as all the evil
> you could ever know. *
> "It is a great thing to feel, when our small plans are in a moment
> destroyed, our own ambitions in a moment thwarted forever, that instead
> of losing we are exchanging a lower for a higher thing; that the fall of
> the blossom means the coming of the fruit; the opening up a soul to newer
> and greater truth." **
> Radiant acquiescence means "not my will but Thine be done." Let us
> approach our disappointments, our failures with the thought, "This is all
> right but different," and how much better it would be.
> A famous doctor who radiated sympathy and gladness had as his motto,
> "That's all right, that's the way it should be." Nothing ever upset him.
> He would work quietly to accomplish results and leave them in God's hands,
> perfectly willing to accept the ends as justifiable to the means.
> "Magnify the faith in yourself and you will minimize the obstacles in
> your way," Marden has said.
> 
> "With God nothing shall be impossible."
> When difficulties are to be met they should be met in the attitude of
> radiant acquiescence and joy, so that we may look upon them as a privilege
> through which the power of the Holy Spirit may be brought into action;
> this generates strong thought currents and attracts strong forces to help
> us.
> A wonderful way to show your love for God and His Cause is to radiate
> from your personality the sunlight of His love. To be it is to
> live it.
> "Resist not evil" has been sounded by all the prophets and a
> thoughtful perusal of their lives indicates how they met the
> circumstances in which they were placed-how they treated their
> enemies. To resist, to use force is against the law of harmony. All
> nature practices this law. In a storm when the wind is blowing, the
> trees in its path bend before its fury, those that resist it are
> snapped in two and broken off. It is better to let others learn through
> experience that they are on the wrong path than to force them to see it
> our way.
> The best way to rise above the petty irritations and delays which
> attack the nervous system is to meet them with non-resistance. All the
> prophets have taught us not to resist evil. 'Abdu'l-Bahá calls
> it "radiant acquiescence." This is the most practical way to handle the
> affairs of life, to drop resistance to things we cannot change, be
> willing (and that happily) that circumstances should go against us, that
> others shall be unkind, unjust, impolite or disagreeable. Through this
> practice the mind is kept quiet and clear and greater power to go through
> life successfully is engendered. Resistance produces poisonous toxins in
> the glands which undermine the health. Most of the nervous illness in the
> world today (and there is much of it) is caused by resistance to
> circumstances or to people, which has kept the nerves and brain in such
> a state of tension and irritation that a breakdown is the only ultimate
> result. In order to get rest and healing, we should say to ourselves,
> "Drop it, what difference does it make?"
> Whether we are aware of it or not we always arouse in others what is
> in our own mind. Anger in you will provoke anger in another, while love
> begets love. So there is a great scientific principle involved in the
> command, "love your enemies;" Hate begets hate, and in no way can
> it be changed except through love. Fear begets fear and confidence
> increases confidence. The cheerfulness of one person can affect a roomful
> of people and if persistently practiced may affect the whole neighborhood.
> When you feel others irritating or disturbing you, get quiet, be
> tranquil, summon the spirit of joy and harmony—ask for guidance and
> strength from the Holy Spirit. Send out harmonious thoughts and soon you
> will find the attitudes of others will change toward you, if you have
> only love in your heart. Love can melt the meanest heart. It takes two
> to quarrel. If one of the angry parties will practice non-resistance and
> puts away all discordant thinking from himself, and waits without
> impatience, the anger of the other must subside for it will have nothing
> on which to feed. Keep your mind in a condition of harmony toward the
> other and wait. In waiting you will accomplish wonders with the right
> mental attitude. "They serve who only stand and wait."
> 
> Faith is patience to wait. There should not be any attempt at verbal
> reconciliation unless it comes naturally and without a truce of inharmony.
> The important thing is in attempting to correct one's own faults and never
> interfering with another unless help is asked.
> "However he treats me, I am to act rightly with regard to him; for the
> one is my concern, the other is not," Epictetus wrote.
> "Nothing another does can ever make it right for me to do wrong,
> because wrong is never right, and no combination of circumstances can
> ever make it so," declared Aaron Crane.
> True self-control must not be thought to be a repression of the desire
> to do wrong but it must go farther and remove the desire in the thinking
> which will thereby remove all necessity for resistance or restraint.
> Substitute one thought or feeling for another.
> Self-control in the spiritual sense is freedom from all control of
> things outside the spiritual self and of all those things that provoke
> discordant thoughts. The person who allows himself to be mentally
> disturbed is in the degree of the disturbance in the power of whatever
> suggested it. By relaxing the mind, by being willing that certain things
> should occur, by keeping the mind centered in the Holy Spirit through
> practicing radiant acquiescence, one will establish such habits that no
> attention need be given even to the control of self, because habits tend
> to act automatically, without conscious care or attention. This is the
> freedom of mind of little children. It is the freedom of heaven. "Except
> ye become as little children ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." As
> thoughts precede actions, then to stop thinking certain thoughts is to
> cease doing certain things. Resistance always interferes with freedom of
> thought and action.
> "Who has more soul than I masters me, though he should not raise his
> finger. Round him I must revolve by the gravitation of spirits. Who has
> less, I rule with like facility."
> "The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity.
> No man can come near me but through my act," Emerson realized.
> Are you in the habit of "blowing up," of "going to pieces," when
> things don't suit you? If you are, you are indulging in an "emotional
> spree," a "nervous jag." These can be quite as disastrous to the body
> as an alcoholic one, due to the poisons poured out into the blood stream
> by the adrenalin glands. Victims of deficient self-control in time become
> sick, mentally. It is their excuse that something that was said or some
> past experience is responsible for these upsets, but the breakdown in
> nervous morale is due to an inflated ego, an inferiority complex or the
> wrong attitude toward the speech and actions of other people.
> A doctor made a list of some of the things that upset some of his
> patients. He found as many as forty causes in the list, most of them
> foolish. One man was continually upset because a business partner was
> always saying "listen," as an introduction to his sentences. A business
> man became furious if anyone in his office arrived a moment late in the
> morning, and he saw to it that he was there early enough to indulge in
> his favorite nervous jag."
> These nervous types must remember that no matter where the blame rests,
> it is better to ignore things that can't be helped, to be "radiantly
> acquiescent." You can't allow other people and the circumstances of
> life to "get on your nerves." You cannot control the habits of the
> rest of the world, and therefore in self-protection you must develop
> an attitude toward them that is less vehement. You will have to teach
> yourself to live in a world as it is, not as you wish it might be. Do
> not take yourself and circumstances so seriously. Laugh at yourself.
> What difference will it make in a hundred years, whether the dinner is
> on time or not? Decide that you will be the master of your own environment
> and don't expect to go through life and escape the experience of "self-
> abasement." We can't expect to ride on the crest of the wave always
> but we can direct ourselves so that we can ride more smoothly. With
> understanding, love, tolerance, sympathy and cooperation many of these
> conditions can be "ironed out." They do not affect the man who has the
> "light of the Holy Spirit in his life."
> Next to radiant acquiescence, the next best cure for "nerves" is the
> habit of self-examination and of looking to one's own faults. The Divine
> Manifestations have ever pointed out the need for man to examine his
> own motives first before be presumed to judge the actions of another.
> "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
> considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye. … Thou hypocrite,
> first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see
> clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
> Bahá'u'lláh in this day admonishes us:
> 
> "If the fire of self overcome you, remember your own faults and not
> the faults of My creatures."
> Real freedom from these irritations must begin within, the motives
> must be changed. If we only outwardly control the appearance of anger
> and irritability and are a seething furnace within we have no control.
> We must get free from the emotion itself to be free and to be master of
> the situation. So everyone must look within first and be relaxed there
> before he can act without. "Everyone," says Bahá'u'lláh
> in Hidden Words, "must show forth deeds that are pure and holy, for
> words are the property of all alike, whereas such deeds as these belong
> only to Our loved ones."
> No matter where we find ourselves in life, all sickness, either of
> the mind or body, comes from the breaking of cosmic laws. ***
> When we walk in the ray of the Holy Spirit we learn to live positively
> and actively, to go about doing good and radiating the light of God's gift.
> Let our light shine upon those who live in the shadows, let us radiate
> that light of the Holy Spirit so that the moment others come into our
> presence they will sense our power, our sincerity, our love, and that
> we have something they need.
> As human beings we unconsciously radiate those inner forces which
> we possess and we influence those who come in contact by our radiations
> for good or ill. 'Abdu'l-Bahá felt the importance of this so
> keenly that in His correspondence He placed great emphasis on radiance
> of expression. He says: "The face is the mirror of the heart," and also:
> "Let all people see that you have the Light, that they may recognize
> something in you which they themselves do not possess."
> 
> Notes
> 
> * Christian O. Larson
> 
> ** Hamilton Wright Mabie
> 
> *** Except those ills and misfortunes visited upon the holy ones, whose patience and sacrifice are the example
> to mankind.
> 
> METADATA
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> Views18761 views since posted 2010-07-11; last edit 2021-05-31 03:09 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../rexford_radiant_acquiescence
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> — *Radiant Acquiescence (Used by permission of the curator)*