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"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
I've always misunderstood this saying. I thought 'the tough get going' meant that they vacated the situation. Of course it didn't make any sense because tough people stick it out, they don't retreat in cowardice, so I always concluded that it was just one of those English things that I'd probably have to take a tertiary course in the language to fully comprehend.
I recently looked it up (at the Google University of the Universe) and found that the saying relies on a difficult play on words. The first 'going' is a noun, referring to the situation or environment; whereas the second 'going' is a verb (because of the 'get' before it), it refers to the action of starting or becoming engaged. Another play is with the word 'tough': the first one is an adjective, describing the difficulty or hardness of the noun (going - situation); while the second 'tough' is a noun, referring to strong or hard people.
Makes sense now, doesn't it? So simply put, this saying means 'When the situation becomes difficult, strong people start working' (they could have just said it that way to start with, but that would be no intellectual fun now, would it?)
I then went on to think about a people who vacated their going when it got tough - Elimelech and his family. Their story plays out in the first chapter of the book of Ruth. This family was in the land of Judah where there was a famine when they decided to temporally move to the land of Moab for the time being. The decision makes alot of sense, but they needed to perceive a few things about who they were and where they were in order to have made a better decision, that probably wasn't as logical but definitely more beneficial.
These people were Ephrathites from Bethlehem. Ephrath/Ephrathah was a city/area associated with, and at some point absorbed into Bethlehem. What excites me is the Hebrew meaning of this word: fruitful. You probably know by now that the Hebrew meaning of Bethlehem is 'house of bread.'
By identity, these people were fruitful, by positioning, they lived in the place of provision. The problem was the tough time they were in. If they fathomed this, they never would have left and never faced the consequences of their decision to leave. When God comes to the aid of His people and Naomi (having lost her sons and husband) hears about it and returns to Bethlehem, she says something that attests to the fact that though the times were tough, they were still provided for. She says she went away full, but is returning empty. She had what she went looking for in Moab (food) but she lost what she had gained and only could maintain in Bethlehem (family - food for the soul). Because until we realize that the greatest gift God can give us is people, and not possessions, we will keep vacating the good places he has put us in.
May we come to understand that it is not always that God will make us escape difficulty. At times, He'll let us go through the fire, He'll allow us to feel pain, He'll let down the fiery hedge and permit the enemy in, He'll leave the thorn in our eye, and when He does, we need to stay. We need to believe who He says we are and where He says He has placed us regardless of what season we are going through. When the going gets tough, we need to stay and pray
I've always misunderstood this saying. I thought 'the tough get going' meant that they vacated the situation. Of course it didn't make any sense because tough people stick it out, they don't retreat in cowardice, so I always concluded that it was just one of those English things that I'd probably have to take a tertiary course in the language to fully comprehend.
I recently looked it up (at the Google University of the Universe) and found that the saying relies on a difficult play on words. The first 'going' is a noun, referring to the situation or environment; whereas the second 'going' is a verb (because of the 'get' before it), it refers to the action of starting or becoming engaged. Another play is with the word 'tough': the first one is an adjective, describing the difficulty or hardness of the noun (going - situation); while the second 'tough' is a noun, referring to strong or hard people.
Makes sense now, doesn't it? So simply put, this saying means 'When the situation becomes difficult, strong people start working' (they could have just said it that way to start with, but that would be no intellectual fun now, would it?)
I then went on to think about a people who vacated their going when it got tough - Elimelech and his family. Their story plays out in the first chapter of the book of Ruth. This family was in the land of Judah where there was a famine when they decided to temporally move to the land of Moab for the time being. The decision makes alot of sense, but they needed to perceive a few things about who they were and where they were in order to have made a better decision, that probably wasn't as logical but definitely more beneficial.
These people were Ephrathites from Bethlehem. Ephrath/Ephrathah was a city/area associated with, and at some point absorbed into Bethlehem. What excites me is the Hebrew meaning of this word: fruitful. You probably know by now that the Hebrew meaning of Bethlehem is 'house of bread.'
By identity, these people were fruitful, by positioning, they lived in the place of provision. The problem was the tough time they were in. If they fathomed this, they never would have left and never faced the consequences of their decision to leave. When God comes to the aid of His people and Naomi (having lost her sons and husband) hears about it and returns to Bethlehem, she says something that attests to the fact that though the times were tough, they were still provided for. She says she went away full, but is returning empty. She had what she went looking for in Moab (food) but she lost what she had gained and only could maintain in Bethlehem (family - food for the soul). Because until we realize that the greatest gift God can give us is people, and not possessions, we will keep vacating the good places he has put us in.
May we come to understand that it is not always that God will make us escape difficulty. At times, He'll let us go through the fire, He'll allow us to feel pain, He'll let down the fiery hedge and permit the enemy in, He'll leave the thorn in our eye, and when He does, we need to stay. We need to believe who He says we are and where He says He has placed us regardless of what season we are going through. When the going gets tough, we need to stay and pray
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