Bear with Each Other - by Elizabeth Reynolds
Colossians 3:12-14
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
I was running late for school the other day, driving down Wattle Street towards Unley. You might know that Wattle Street is 50kph. But I was going 40kph. And that’s because the person in front of me was driving at 40kph. If there’s one thing that annoys me on the road… it’s people tailgating me. BUT… I find it very hard not to tailgate myself when the person in front of me is not observing the liberalities of the speed limit. We came to some roadworks, where the speed limit changed to 40kph. So the person in front of me is going the right speed now right? Nope! They slowed down to 30kph.
“Um… you were already going 40! No need to slow down! You were fine!”
Soon, we come up to the Duthy Street traffic lights. The lights had been green a little while back, but as we approached, they turned red and I felt very confident that had I been able to go 50kph this whole time (even with the roadwork stretch) I would have made it through those lights. And I said it. I announced to myself in the hearing of Beth and Emily, sitting in the back seat, “I would have made those lights if it wasn’t for this person in front of me!”
At the intersection, the road splits into two lanes — both go straight, but the left can also turn left and the right can also turn right. The car ahead takes the left lane. There’s no one else at the lights, so I go in the free lane on the right. Naturally, I glance over at the driver beside me — because apparently, we all need to get a good look at the face of the person who’s been annoying us.
Now stationery, I reflect that my little grumble was probably not a great example for my girls. I lift my left hand up a little, palm out towards the car next to me and say, “I love you with Jesus’ love,” and then say no more about it.
Now that we had been at the lights, the road was clear in front of me. The slow person was going to turn left (I had seen their indicator earlier) and I had nothing in front of…
No. Just milliseconds before my light goes green, a last second right-turner from Duthy street comes and turns onto Wattle. My light goes green. This new car is now right in front of me. And slow.
…On their back window is a sticker that simply says, “Jesus” in a little fish symbol.
I purse my lips, blink my eyes and chuckle to myself. I felt the Lord say, “Good job eventually having the right attitude with the last one. Here’s another one to practise.” Or perhaps even, “This is Me. Jesus. I’m this person. I’m the last person too. Just love.”
Love covers everything. Every situation. Every person. Every circumstance, thought, attitude and action. In the bible, God calls us to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient and forgiving. This is all too hard sometimes. But one thing that helps us do all of them all at once, is love. If you love a person, (the action, not the emotion), you will have a heart for them, you will be thinking of them, considering them, bearing with them, trying to understand them, showing empathy towards them.
I love how teaching as a profession keeps you in check. Or at least gives you a jolt from time to time. I am teaching Colossians 3:12-14 with my Year 3/4 Class at the moment as we practise our handwriting. We focus on a different ‘clothing’ item each week and write and learn scriptures about that particular thing.
This very same week as my ‘Jesus-bumper-sticker-encounter’ was the very same week we talked about ‘grumbling’ and ‘being patient’ at Talking Tuesdays (James 5:7-12), and also the very same week we arrived at ‘Forbearance’ in our handwriting series. Bearing with each other. We talked in the classroom about how that can be bearing with, as in (quite frankly) ‘putting up’ with and being patient with, and it can also mean carrying each other’s burdens.
I would like to add that at the time of typing this into my newsletter template (Friday), I wanted to check that I had written out the scripture at the top correctly, so I visited biblegateway.com. And you’ll never believe what the ‘verse of the day’ was:
Galatians 6:2
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
This was one of the verses I included in my class’s handwriting task this week.
Forbearance is one of the ‘items’ we are to ‘clothe ourselves’ in. And over all these virtues, put on ‘love’ – as though it’s a big, beautiful overcoat to finish off the perfect ensemble! And then the trickiest bit (or should it be easy?) is to go about your day accordingly.