Tolerant?

9/22/2007

Brittany: We have a question about a tutor that comes to our house. She’s one of those people that’s very tolerant, like “What’s good for you is fine for you.”

Mark: You know the word “tolerant” is a little bit of a misnomer. Sometimes it’s cowardly. “I just don’t want to think about it. La-la-la-la.” That’s cowardice. That’s not tolerance, necessarily.

Brittany: She’s a very smart, intelligent lady. But I have just kind of been thinking, when we’ve tried to present truth to her, one of the things she’s said is that there are many ways to God. We said, “But Jesus said that narrow is the way, and few will find it.” And she said to us as clear as crystal, “That’s your definition of narrow.” And Rebecca and I were just looking at each other going...

Mark: “Few are those who find it.” Few means few.

Brittany: Few means few!

Mark: Yeah. And when you can walk on water, lady, you can write your own book, too!

Brittany: We have her for a couple of more months, and she seems fine to still be with us.

Mark: I wouldn’t be argumentative with her.

Brittany: We try not to be…

Mark: Just say a phrase or two here and there and then grin at her and change the subject. Just say, “You know that thing about many roads leading up there? Well, we were talking about it and thought, the guy who said the opposite could raise people from the dead. So we’ll believe your theory when you can raise people from the dead. OK, so what were we talking about?” And go right back to Spanish. Just leave her those little nuggets that she can’t just do anything about. Don’t give her any time to blabber about it. If she can’t raise somebody from the dead, they she can’t write her book. You know, it’s not uncommon, I mean...

Brittany: People want to be apes. They would rather be apes than submit to God. She loves words, and I’m thinking, how can she misunderstand the definition of narrow?

Mark: Well she probably never looked it up. See? People are “experts” in things a lot of times because they want to believe something about it. If she actually looked up what Jesus said, it wouldn’t be possible to arrive at her conclusion. She’s going to have to choose that the person who could raise people from the dead and tell storms to shut up, that person is wrong and she’s right. That’s what she would have to do.

Brittany: We thought maybe about giving her that Dinner with a Perfect Stranger. It was helpful to me just the way he broke down some of those thought patterns that there are many ways. Obviously, there can’t be. It seems pretty clear.

Mark: Find out if she’d rather read or listen or watch a DVD. Some people just love to read and would never get around to watching a DVD. Other people are exactly the opposite. I’m serious. Some people would watch the DVD, but they’d have that book sitting on their shelf for years and never touch it. But they’d sit and watch a DVD while they’re eating dinner and trying to kill time. They’re visual people. So, don’t assume one or the other just because you would prefer one or the other. Try to find out which she would prefer, because some people are very different about that.

Laura: And we all have our own way of warping truth that we don’t want to obey.