To Be Known

I want to be known. Sometimes I think about how people will remember me or how friends would describe me. I am very consumed with what people think of me.

Sometimes I think that it would be cool to be famous. Cameras would follow me and people would comment on things that I wear and who is seen with me at important events, concerts or movie premieres. I would act as though I did not even notice the cameras and the flashes. I would smile and have quiet conversations about trivial things while others looked on wanting to be me.

I think that I am funny in a charming and intelligently witty way. I wonder if others would describe me as funny or just stupid.
I once saw a guy who would swallow billiard balls and barf them back up. David Letterman called him “the great regurgitator.” That would be a cool thing to be known for in a disgusting kind of way.

I want to be known for my great ideas. I need to be recognized as someone who has contributed something significant. I want people to notice and affirm me. Paul wants us to be known as being forbearing. That sounds like a lame thing to be known for. I would rather have people say, “he’s so cute,” or “he is so creative,” or “he is such a deep thinker.” It just doesn’t sound as cool to have someone say, “he is so forbearing.”

“How would I describe goz?” “Well, I think that he is forbearing…in a cute, creative, deep sort of way.” LAME.
What does Paul mean forbearing? It is a word that is pretty hard to communicate with just one other word in translation. Some have used the word meek or “gentle.” But even these spiritual sounding words leave something out of what Paul meant. One writer defines forbearing this way, “considerate courtesy and respect for the integrity of others which prompts a person not to be forever standing on his rights.”