The Ministry of Bearing

As I'm coming to the close of my first four months in Korea, I have been experiencing this past week what some of my American colleagues tell me is a common disposition in first-time foreigners. In spite of all the wonderful opportunities to celebrate the accomplishments of students at the end of the academic year, I have been thinking and acting a whole lot more like Scrooge than Santa Claus – no matter how hard I’ve tried to work-up a holiday spirit. 

Nearly every little thing throughout each day that otherwise might only be a minor irritant has now, from my perspective, transformed into a major -- did I say MAJOR -- source of consternation!!!!! My patience is wearing thinner and thinner. (For my regular readers, you may have noticed a shift in tone in some of my recent posts). 

I am so ready to get back to the States for what I’m looking forward to -- a few wonderful weeks of renewed fellowship with my dearly loved ones. My only consolation, at this point, is to confess my failures to love and bear with my new brothers and sisters, and trust the forgiving grace of our Lord. I have been reminded of my deep need to ask God to cultivate within me a servant’s heart. 

Brother Bonhoeffer teaches us to serve one another in very practical ways. One of the chief means of service is what he describes as the ministry of bearing. As followers of Christ we are called upon to bear the burdens of others.

Those burdens include the other “person’s nature, individuality, endowment. It also includes his weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts, and collisions among us” 

“To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it.” (Life Together 101).

I have not yet made that break through to joy. I know that I am not capable of it.  So, if it should occur (and only the others with whom I am called to bear will know for sure) it will only occur by the grace and mercy of Christ.