Lowliness of heart and meekness of spirit are two traits that fly totally in the face of that the world emulates. You rarely hear someone praised, even in Christian circles for being meek and lowly. Instead, even in the church, we tend to praise the big, bad tough guy who gets things done. Instead of defining strength and power in God’s terms we can get caught in the trap of defining men as the world does and the meek, quiet, humble, caring, compassionate man can be seen as a sissy or a wimp.
Sure, I am not denying the importance of a man being spiritually tough and willing to stand and fight for his faith. We are called soldiers and runners and boxers, after all. Men need to act like men – there is no doubt.
But there is an aspect of spiritual manliness that we can forget. As we look through the Bible we see the words meek and lowly and full of compassion and caring and nurturing and quiet all applied to men of God. We love the phrase ‘quit ye like men’ forgetting that in the same context are the words ‘do everything in love.’
I have known a very few meek and lowly men of God. They are such a blessing when you come across them. Their sweet spirit draws people to them. They are as tough as nails when it comes to standing for the faith, but when it comes to dealing with people they are deal with with a lovely gentleness.
Meek and lowly folk don’t see a need to elevate themselves. Meek and lowly folk don’t worry a lot about how important they look or if they get the credit. They only care about that marvelous spirit of meekness. If we all took that to heart it would solve all kinds of issues in the church.
Moses was meek. Jesus was meek. Oughtn’t I do the same?
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