tolerate

The temptation to whine can be great sometimes. Last week, on one distinctly frustrating afternoon, I couldn’t help asking--isn’t it enough that we moved all the way here to this country? Haven’t we given up enough? Dear God, can’t you just make all the local people be nice to us and trustworthy and efficient, all the time?


Last night our small group discussed Luke 8, The Parable of the Sower. In the NIV Jesus’ ends the teaching by exhorting believers “to persevere.” Interestingly, Rob pointed out that in the Swahili translation, the word exhortation takes on a blunter tone. “Persevere” is replaced by the word “tolerate”.


The shift in meaning illuminated by the word “tolerate” really hit home. It was liberating to recall how often the Bible reminds us that life on earth is going to suck. A lot. And to understood that times of suffering (from the kind Duncan sees every day, to the tedious stuck-in-traffic-because-someone-decided-rush-hour-was-a-good-time-to-walk-their-cattle kind) are just part of the deal, not freak exceptions that we can out-maneuver by being smarter, more efficient, or more fit.


The need to “tolerate” while living in Mwanza became particularly poignant as everyone in the group began sharing items for prayer: car trouble, health trouble, death in the family, family strife, frustration at work, disinterested colleagues, indifferent bureaucrats, petty thieves and on and on and on.


So I guess all we can do is keep walking and keep tolerating and keep repeating what He said, that: in this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world.”