There are two main definitions for the word tare. Tare can be a kind of plant, as in Jesus’s Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. Tare can also refer to resetting a scale after the empty container has been placed on it, so that only the weight of the contents of the container is measured, and the weight of the container is discounted or discarded. If we keep both of these meanings in mind, we can see a little more clearly our role and purpose in the great and marvelous work to which God has called us. When we consider the unique challenges that we face in our time to stand as witnesses of God in all times and all places, to be examples unto the believers, to serve and teach and invite with love everyone around us to come unto Christ, it can be tempting to believe with all of our hearts that the task laid before us is an impossible one. How can we bring any light into a world filled with so much darkness? How can we stand up for truth when the angry mobs call good evil and evil good? How can we reach out with love when there is so much hate? How can we muster up even an ounce of enthusiasm for laboring in the field, when the enemy has come in and sown so many tares amongst the wheat? We want more than anything for the Lord to deduct the weight of our burden, to tare the scale and reset it to zero. How often have we said to ourselves, if only I could go back to living in such and such a time. I could have handled the challenges they faced. It would be so much easier to work in a field that had those kinds of tares. But we can only labor in the field we have been given. “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34). When the Lord talks about His servants laboring in the field, what kind of language does He use? “Thrust in the sickle with your might.” This is hard work. We should not try to tare the weight of the evil we have to face from the scale by which we are judged. We need to take this seriously. It is not impossible to continue growing wheat in a field full of tares. We are not weak or stupid or lazy or cursed if we don’t magically feel completely at ease as we labor in the field. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. We can do good things, we can grow and make the world a more beautiful, more loving, more peaceful place, even amidst a field sown full of the tares of hate and lies and malice. It will not be easy. We will have to thrust in our sickle with all of our might. We will have to keep our eye fixed on the glory of God and concentrate with all of our heart, might, mind and strength and be guided by the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in order to sift the wheat from the tares. Sometimes we will drop some sheaves of wheat. Sometimes we will hold onto some tares that we should have let go. But we should never tell ourselves that there is too much evil in the world for any good thing to grow. And we should never try to discount or deduct or demean the true weight of the burden that we must bear, or pretend to ourselves that the hard things in life don’t bother us. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” We have peace, not when we hide from or ignore our tribulations, but when we follow in the footsteps of our Savior and overcome them, even as He did.
