The Root, Part 4--Martha Root

O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of "Ya Baha'u'l-'Abha" in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the divine teaching! This, alas, I cannot do. How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it. ~'Abdu'l-Baha.

When I reflect on the Baha'i law of the Right of God, which entails returning to God a fraction of my excess income, which rightfully belongs to God, with increasing clarity I remember what I think of as the "Martha Root Standard." Martha Root was a Baha'i who traveled the world, beginning in 1915 and throughout the 1920's and 30's. She sacrificed everything to teach the Baha'i Faith, traveling around the world in the utmost poverty and illness, but teaching a multitude of people the Baha'i Faith.

All I can really remember from reading about Martha Root, however, is that she lived very simply for the sake of economy. I remember reading that a typical dinner for her was a boiled egg. She was completely consecrated to Baha'u'llah. Clearly, Martha Root lived only on what she actually needed. So when I think of Martha Root, I think of boiled eggs. And vice versa.

What am I doing here? All the time I made so much income, the bulk of which was virtually wasted on this house, I was in a way miserable. Partly because of the misery and stress of the job, and partly because I had lost track of why I am here. To travel this journey in the path of God and rely on God for every step. To derive my joy, not from what I can buy here on this material plane, but from doing whatever I can in the path of God.