Be A “Meek” … Hello Hump Day readers. Here’s a question: would you like to be a Meek? No doubt in our society most would say “no way, the meek are not worthy.” When I was a kid, I had no problems at all to stand up for myself, my twin sister, and I could be bossy if things didn’t go my way. Suffice it to say my folks knew I needed correction–often!

What I needed and what we all need is viewing meekness through God’s lens and not the lens of the world. I wondered if God would give me a heavenly pass on my disdain of meekness? After all God is the one who created me uniquely to be my non-meek self-ha! Later when I went to seminary, they wanted us to teach a class on the Sermon on the Mount. I dove into that until I got stopped in Matthew 5:5. Here I was face-to-face with meek! It was then I needed to buckle-up and learn what this meant.

One of our professors shared a memory from his Sunday school when he was a kid saying: s: “I got a card with flowers that were printed with the Beatitudes. I told my mom how pretty I thought it was, she wisely—and I suspect hopefully—placed the card on a shelf at my height so I could read it often. But I always got stuck on Matthew 5:5! My mom kept praying for me and often she would say ‘Tom, you will get it soon or later but your dad and I would like it a lot if you did it sooner.” We laughed with him but for me, I knew exactly what he meant so I buckled down and dove into meek and oh my, did I get a ‘learning experience’!

First I looked up Webster’s Dictionary definition of meek … “Enduring injury with patience and without resentment…a meek child dominated by his siblings…deficient in spirit, courage and submissive…not violent or strong.” Wow, there was more but this time I was getting closer to understanding meek —so I looked for the biblical definition and that was the crown jewel! From the Greek word for meek I discovered that it can also mean “strength under control.” That’s when the lightbulb lit up in my mind and I did a happy dance!

My problem and millions of others in this word meek are still looking at it with a worldly lens, envisioning someone who lingered on the periphery of activity, unwilling to assert themselves or uncomfortable expressing an opinion. However, when viewed through the lens of strength under control, I began to see this Beatitude through new eyes and I fell in love with it!

I sat down with that professor and he said “Cyndy, did you know that the meek who are blessed in our key verse are those who choose to be meek?” I was stunned. He then said “Those with strong dispositions and opinions can choose self-control when God prompts them. The verse becomes less about the power of our personality and more about the blessing of obedience.” I left his office and felt a huge burden was taken off my back!

I continued on my journey because now I wanted to be a MEEK! And I truly needed to learn self-control, yield in discussions—I am not good at it. I learned to allow space for others to share their opinions. Like me, we like to sit in the driver’s seat but God wants us to take a back seat because we learn more and we learn to listen. And that is when I realized that “this bossy little girl-me finally grew up! I often choose Matthew 5:5 for my morning prayers and sometimes even nightly prayers!  I love the Voice translation: “Blessed are the meek and gentle—they will inherit the earth.” 

I need to be that way, and I think we all do. So here is my prayer: Holy Spirit, help us to tune our ‘spiritual ears’ to hear you and take your guidance to heart. Help us to get out of ourselves so we can practice being a “MEEK!” AMEN.