E Go Beta

People in my country have a habit of saying, "It will get better" when facing a difficult situation. You will often hear it in French "ça va aller" or in Pidgin English "E go beta".

When there is not enough foot, “E go beta”.

When an epidemic strikes, “E go beta”.

One day, a foreigner who wondered how people could endure such difficult living conditions exclaimed: " How can you say 'It will get better' when everything is going wrong?"

So, her host told her the story of the chief of the diamond village. 

A village famous for its diamond mines was headed by a chief known for his wisdom. But the chief was already old and he had to appoint a successor from among his three sons. He had the idea of ​​putting them to a test. Leading them to the entrance of a still unexploited mine, he said to them:

"At the other end of this gallery is something precious and strong, formed in great pressure and high temperature. Whoever brings it back to me will be my successor."

To reach the exit of the gallery, the three young men had to crawl over wounding stones, and in stifling heat. Soon the first two stopped:

"Why does the old man make us suffer so much? It's easier to come up to the surface and go dig directly at the other end.” This is what they did.

The third persevered to the end. There he found his two brothers upset that they had stirred the earth all around without finding anything.

The first was so desperate that he decided to go get a diamond from a jeweler.

The second was so disappointed that he went straight home grumbling about the senile dementia of the old rulers.

The third dug and found nothing either.

He said to himself:

“I will go back to the chief and defer to his decision. At the beginning I had placed my hope in a diamond, now I hope in the one who sent me."

The chef greeted him warmly:

“The precious thing I expected from you is this hope against all hope that would result from your transformation. For, suffering produces patience; patience, strength of character; and strength of character, hope *. And it takes all of that to lead this people."

“This is why Madam,” concludes the host, “when we say it will get better, it's because we put our hope in the One who can do everything, God. "

* Romans 5: 3-4

Ivanova N. Fotso