Intolerance is baked into our everyday lives, so much so that we hardly think about how often we are intolerant.

Being tolerant of another person’s aberrant thinking is caused by either laziness or fear. When we let someone espouse an untruth as if it were true and not challenge their position, it often goes back to not undertaking the heavy lifting that it takes to explore what is true. But the most prevalent reason for being tolerant of someone’s weak reasoning is fear of relational estrangement. Should we push back on their position, we fear rejection.

When life turns cold, we instinctively judge God’s nearness and goodness based on our circumstances. We may have experienced “a frowning providence” at a doctor’s visit, a fender bender, an unexpectedly large bill, or a rift in a friendship. The common denominator in all of these is a feeling of dread. “Where is God in all of this?”, we might ask.