Trying Harder

Imagine you are a teacher and you have spent months, perhaps years trying to get your students to understand a simple lesson.  How frustrating is it when they fail to get the point?

And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him." Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me." - Matthew 17:16-17

In today's Gospel, Jesus loses patience with his disciples.  He has tried to pass onto them the faith he has, but they have fallen short and they don't understand.

Whose failure is it?  Is it the student's or the teacher's?

Because this is about Jesus, we are more likely to blame the students, but I am not sure that is how they would see it.

They could argue that they were sent out unprepared for the challenges they encountered.

If that is how they felt, could they ever be truly ready?

There is a certain amount of self confidence one needs to make it in life.  Even if we have faith, we need to be confident enough to act on it, and expect good results, or we will fail.

Failure can be good.  It can motivate us to try again and try harder, to be more focused, more confident.  Is that what happened to the disciples?

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that Peter, the one disciples who often got it wrong, was able to cure the sick and breathe life back into one who had died.  So, I guess Jesus was right.  It was up to them to try harder.

I expect people to want to try harder when they fail, and also when they succeed.  Each time, the challenge is new and it brings with it new issues and obstacles.

So, here is the question.  How many times do we put up with the failures in people, before they succeed?

Is it once, twice, seventy-seven times?

I guess it depends on how much faith we have.  Do we believe we can help them get it right?  Or do we give up?

More to come...