'With Meaning, Many Things Are Bearable'

Have you ever felt as if you wanted to give up because life’s pressures piled up? “With meaning, many things are bearable,” someone said.

Perhaps you’ve heard this old expression: “That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Some people shorten that saying to “That’s the last straw.” An expression such as that is called an “idiom.” According to Wikipedia, an idiom is an expression, word or phrase whose sense means something different from what the words literally imply. There are an estimated 25,000 idioms in the English language.

Wikipedia states that the idiom “the straw that broke the camel’s back” comes from an Arabic proverb about how a camel…is loaded beyond its capacity to move. “This is a reference to any process by which cataclysmic failure (a broken back) is achieved by a seemingly inconsequential addition (a single straw).”

As a child, I heard that expression and visualized a camel standing while someone placed one last straw on a heavy load of straw already on his back. In my mind, he suddenly went down, uttering an anguished bellow as he “bit the dust.” That last straw broke his back, finished him, did him in, caused him to kick the bucket, buy the farm, give up the ghost or whatever other idiom could be used to describe the camel’s demise.

There are many irritations in life. Irritations are like flies buzzing around an old horse standing under a tree. Mr. Horse tries to rest, but flies continue harassing, as he flicks his tail to keep them away. He sometimes raises a rear hoof and hits the ground with it to ward off flies.

There are also “vicissitudes of life” which are defined as “difficulties or hardships attendant on a way of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one’s control.” Vicissitudes include pain, sickness, flat tires, problems with relatives, money problems and even death. Vicissitudes concern life in general.

The statement “With meaning, many things are bearable“ rings true. If a person believes there is meaning to life beyond present circumstances, that person can “take the heat” and “weather” difficult times or suffering much better than the person who believes life is mere “existence” and “then you die.”

Some people seem to have little patience to deal with the irritations and vicissitudes of life. A few years ago, a young lady interviewed at Gulistan Carpet, the carpet manufacturing company where I work. The lady had a 2-year degree in something from a college near our mill. Our customer service department hired her, but she was assigned to work in product development, where I work, until the next customer service training cycle began – a matter of a few days. Our office manager gave the young lady a job of stuffing envelopes with letters going to our sales force.

Near lunchtime on the lady’s first day on the job, our office manager looked for that lady who had been inserting letters into envelopes. She was missing, so our office manager called the personnel department. The personnel manager said the young lady came by his office and said, “I didn’t go to school to stuff envelopes.” She left in a huff. If she had waited a few days, she would have begun training for what I consider a pretty good job. She seemed to have little patience for a “better tomorrow.” She appeared to have minimal tolerance for delayed gratification.

Many people can’t take much frustration, because they don’t believe there is a God, a Jesus or a heavenly reward. They don’t believe God is in control. There are times when we should make changes, but sometimes we give up too quickly. Comedian Bob Hope said, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”

Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused by his owner’s wife and went to prison. He trusted God through it all and was, in time, chosen to be second-in-command in Egypt. I believe that if he had died in prison with no justice or recognition given to him, Joseph would still have trusted God. He had “meaning” in his life, and he could bear many things.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we should keep our eyes fastened on Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 KJV).

Jesus believed in his reward, “the joy (the prize) that was set before him,” and he endured the cross. “With meaning, many things are bearable.”