The Power of Persistence
I recently read a parable not taught very often. In fact, I’m not sure I have ever heard it taught. The parable is from Luke 18:2-8, where Jesus says,
In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, “Give me justice against my adversary.” For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.”
The absence of this parable in my learning history surprised me, because the message struck me as so central to the life of the disciple. The widow is dealing with an unjust judge, but she refuses to give up. She comes before the man until he gives in to her request, and the rest of the parable reads,
And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith? Will he find the kind of faith that persists? Will he find the kind of faith that nags at an unjust system even when it feels like the cards are stacked against what is right? Will he find people willing to raise their voices to God and humans over and over and over again; voices that beg for justice for the people around us?
Many days global injustice feels overwhelming. People hurt. Ministers, counselors, social workers, teachers, doctors, and nurses get a front seat to the suffering, but almost everyone has instant access to scenes of suffering through smartphones or television screens. So it’s easy to feel defeated. It’s easy to feel like we are crying out to an unjust system that does not “fear God or respect man.” It’s easy to feel small and ineffectual. And yet, we must persist like the widow. When it is easy to be quiet, we must speak out. When we feel like our words and cries do nothing, we must speak louder. Yes, the system can ignore us, but we can persist.
As a middle child and Enneagram Nine (the peacemaker), my tendency has always been to keep the “peace,” which usually means keeping quiet. So learning to speak out in order to seek true peace has been both terrifying and healing. Wisdom tells us that there are times to be quiet, but wisdom also tells us that there are times to be loud. In the words of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, “Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Who needs us to be the persistent widow for them today? Who do we need to aggravate until they listen? Who among us has the faith to continue fighting what feels like losing battles for the sake of the victims in the world? Who, like Luke says, will learn from the parable to always pray and not lose heart? The widow likely found herself in what felt like a powerless position, but she kept acting. May we all capture her tenacity when it comes to the things that matter. Sometimes the power is in the persisting.
