NEVER GROW WEARY
This sounds so simple and yet it cuts to the heart of many of our moral struggles. We give up too soon, give in too soon, and don’t carry our solitude to its highest level. We simply don’t carry tension long enough.
All of us experience tension in our lives: in our families, in our friendships, in our places of work, in our churches, in our communities, and within our conversations around other people, politics, and current events.
Being good-hearted people, we carry that tension with patience, respect, graciousness, and forbearance – for a while! Then, at a certain point we feel ourselves stretched to the limit, grow weary of doing what is right, feel something snap inside of us, and hear some inner-voice say: Enough! I’ve put up with this too long! I won’t tolerate this anymore!
We let go of patience, respect, graciousness, and forbearance, either by venting and giving back in kind, or simply by fleeing the situation with an attitude of good riddance. Either way, we refuse to carry the tension any longer.
At that exact point, when we have to choose between giving up or holding on, carrying tension or letting it go, is a crucial moral site, one that determines character: Big-heartedness, nobility of character, deep maturity, and spiritual sanctity often manifest themselves around these questions: How much tension can we carry? How great is our patience and forbearance? How much can we put up with?
Of course this comes with a caveat: Carrying tension does not mean carrying abuse. Those of noble character and sanctity of soul challenge abuse rather than enable it through well-intentioned acquiescence. Sometimes, in the name of virtue and loyalty, we are encouraged to absorb abuse, but that is antithetical to what Jesus did. He loved, challenged, and absorbed tension in a way that took away the sins of the world. We know now, thanks to long bitter experience, that no matter how noble our intention, when we absorb abuse as opposed to challenging it, we don’t take away the sin, we enable it.
All of this will not be easy. It’s the way of long loneliness, with many temptations to let go and slip away. If you persevere and never grown weary of doing what is right, at your funeral, those who knew you will be blessed and grateful that you continued to believe in them even when for a time they had stopped believing in themselves.
