In the last entry I started sharing a little bit about my story of understanding about money and its relation to what it is to be meek.
That is to say that the real temptation in approaching the blessings of God is to contort them into things that should glorify me. Oh look money get me more stuff, and me have more stuff, mean me happy, even though when me get stuff, me want more stuff so me happier.
It really is a case that such things expose the real nature of our hearts, and so what meekness does is acknowledge that we can take that power of choice and abuse it, and rather than do that, we agree with the line from that standard prayer,
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
The evil we need deliverance from only comes through the leading of our Heavenly Father. That evil can be the susceptibility to errant use of finances, or the wrong use of our bodies through gorging ourselves, promiscuous sexual activity, the wrong use of our minds and souls to be passionate for the things that miss the heart of God.
Meekness acknowledges power, but puts it in the right place. Meekness says that under divine control, with divine wisdom we need not run up loans that will take years of pain and heartache to repay. Meekness says that under divine control, with divine wisdom we need not bring children into this world in confused and pain-wrecked relationships and ambiguity over the correct sources of love.
It’s a lesson that I have learned and continue to learn. It’s a lesson that applies to how I am as a husband and a father. It’s a lesson that applies to my approach to work and my colleagues and those whom I serve. It’s a lesson that applies to my approach to the brothers and sisters in Christ and how we engage with each other in Kingdom activities.
I’m grateful for how God teaches those lessons through the decisions I make, whether the right or the wrong ones.
The relationship of meekness and humility, however, is that giving over control to Christ is based on a recognition that in actuality any other existence is an illusion of the way things are. Namely that without the Creator we are nothing and everything we are is because of the Creator. The mind to think, the will to choose, the passions to motivate us, the power to move – it all comes from Him. That knowledge is truly humbling. Not humiliating – humbling.
It gets humiliating when we lose focus of that and we trip up, fall flat on our face and have nowhere else to go to get back up again, except for the source of life itself.
Even that humiliation can work as a humbling one if we but learn the lesson that whatever we have – power or otherwise – is only because of Him. Then in response we endeavour to live out gratitude for that in God-glorifying, Spirit-filled, Jesus-incarnating lives. Returning thanks to Him for all He gives to us.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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