Opinion / Columnist
A time for patience
31 Jul 2018 at 10:37hrs | Views
At times of high tension or nervousness, I often turn to the Bible. In particular, I find comfort in a particular passage from Ecclesiastes:
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
The beauty of this passage is that it teaches us the values of perspective and of patience. There is a time for everything, but that time is not necessarily now.
I am reminded of this teaching as we wait for election results to come in. We have all invested a lot in this election – time, energy and emotion. We are of course nervously waiting to hear what will happen, and how our favoured candidate will fair.
In this situation, there is of course a tendency to speculate, to spread rumours, and to hang on crumbs of information as if they are the gospel. This desire to know is only human.
However, it is unhelpful and something we must resist. Nothing good can come from wild speculation and rumours. Yesterday was a peaceful day, but with tensions high, this peace can be fragile. It must be protected at all costs.
Presidential candidates claiming they have won with zero results declared, or their supporters on Twitter insisting that victory is certain based on less than 1% of unofficial results, is extremely unhelpful. It does nothing for our understanding of the situation, and merely inflames the tensions.
And so to paraphrase Ecclesiastes: There is a time to celebrate, and a time to be humble. A time to get excited and a time to be calm. A time for rumours and a time to wait for the truth. A time for joy and a time for patience.
Today is the latter.
I will be keeping calm and waiting for official results before I get excited, and for Zimbabwe's sake, I urge you all to do the same.
Charles (student)
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
The beauty of this passage is that it teaches us the values of perspective and of patience. There is a time for everything, but that time is not necessarily now.
I am reminded of this teaching as we wait for election results to come in. We have all invested a lot in this election – time, energy and emotion. We are of course nervously waiting to hear what will happen, and how our favoured candidate will fair.
In this situation, there is of course a tendency to speculate, to spread rumours, and to hang on crumbs of information as if they are the gospel. This desire to know is only human.
However, it is unhelpful and something we must resist. Nothing good can come from wild speculation and rumours. Yesterday was a peaceful day, but with tensions high, this peace can be fragile. It must be protected at all costs.
Presidential candidates claiming they have won with zero results declared, or their supporters on Twitter insisting that victory is certain based on less than 1% of unofficial results, is extremely unhelpful. It does nothing for our understanding of the situation, and merely inflames the tensions.
And so to paraphrase Ecclesiastes: There is a time to celebrate, and a time to be humble. A time to get excited and a time to be calm. A time for rumours and a time to wait for the truth. A time for joy and a time for patience.
Today is the latter.
I will be keeping calm and waiting for official results before I get excited, and for Zimbabwe's sake, I urge you all to do the same.
Charles (student)
Source - Charles (student)
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