Editorial November 14, 1988 Issue

New tolerance, new compassion

Michael D. Rissler

It's helpful to know that our understanding of God and life is something that unfolds gradually in human thought. Such understanding doesn't come all at once. But this is not a reason to become anxious. We may not understand many things, but we can trust that God is divine Mind and He is the creator and sustainer of all that truly is.

We can trust this great truth even when there is much that is hard to understand or make sense of in human life. Some of the best and most beneficial experiences don't look that way at the outset. A good education, for example, is often difficult to appreciate or to understand when we're laboring late at night over a subject that may not seem to have immediate usefulness and is causing considerable immediate hardship. In a parallel way, many healings that we experience will only be fully appreciated when we look back from a position of greater maturity.

True, when hard challenges come to us, especially when we feel we've really tried to do what's best, it may hurt. Even the acknowledgment that we've all made mistakes doesn't always offer much comfort or bring the understanding that's needed to face challenges and prove God's allness. Such times often show that there are at least two kinds of tolerance that can develop in our lives. One kind of tolerance grows from having committed an error ourselves. Then, when another person makes a similar mistake, we may tend to be less judgmental. Another kind of tolerance undermines evil, exposing its nothingness; such tolerance brings true freedom.

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