Love and Bear It

To grin and bear something means to tolerate it, put on a happy face and ride out the discomfort. After all, it’ll be over soon enough. That’s a perfectly practical way to deal with half the difficulties in life. But what if you could manage to respond with love instead of mere tolerance or reluctant acquiescence? What areas of life might improve with the switch — work, family, everything maybe?

What started this train of thought was a line I encountered in a letter from John of Gaza. John was a monk who lived in sixth-century Palestine in a monastery near the cell of his friend Barsanuphius. The pair is best known for their prolific correspondence, counseling, advising, teaching, and encouraging inquirers.