Fretting and Meekness

Take a good look at Pslam 37. Read the whole thing, but the verses I want to focus on are right here:

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!

8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Note: fretting and waiting are set against one another. Fretting leads only to evil, but those who wait on the Lord will ultimately "inherit the land."

Note also: those who wait are described as "the meek." the fretters plan out aggressive strategies to get what they want (and thus, they hope, relieve them from the need to fret) but these plans only tend to evil. They are "evil devices." The meek, on the other hand, simply wait, not trying to engineer or manipulate ends of their own devising.

Question: what are you fretting about? Have you noticed how fretting leads to evil? Perhaps you've noticed that in another, but not yourself. When your boss frets, for example, you may notice how it clearly leads to evil, but do you notice this about your own fretting? Or are you an anxiety justifier? If so, go back and read Psalm 37 again. And again.

It's pretty clear the "age of anxiety" is still going strong. But is all our worrying only leading to evil? And evil, by the way, will come to naught. That's the promise of the kingdom. But those who wait patiently, the meek, as Jesus says, will inherit the earth!

Think about that, and then bow down.

Musing about Meekness

"Blessed are the meek," Jesus says, "for they shall inherit the earth." Thinking about this passage yesterday, I was reminded about something James, the brother of Jesus, would later write:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:1-3

Quarreling is of course a product of unmeekness. Each one wants what he or she wants, and that they get it is the overriding concern. But our wants conflict, so the wants of one are set against the wants of the other. It gets extremely complicated and entangling, and frustration--frustrated desires--is the result. In our frustration we bring these desires to God--God, I want it, I want it bad, I've been wanting it for so long, please satisfy my desire!--we ask wrongly. Our wanting becomes a burden, and we want to be rid of wanting, and simply have what we desire, but of course this can never be. Sometimes I think what we really desire is the feeling of not wanting any more, but simply of having. Always having. Like someone who has come into a fortune suddenly, and can always have whatever he wants. So we play the lottery, or we cheat on our taxes, or we go into massive debt, or we quarrel in frustration within our own family, which is made up of other frustrated wanters. Oh who shall save me from this body of death?

The zen answer would be to quit wanting, I suppose, but good luck with that. The Bible answer is, rejoice in the Lord. Look at the last chapter of Philippians, where Paul mentions the names of two who had apparently been quarreling (he must have heard about it from Epaphroditus). He urges them to "agree in the Lord." I'm not exactly sure what that means--maybe they are to focus on their having the Lord in common, though they may disagree about some lesser thing. Anyway, right away Paul says--is it his antidote to quarreling?--"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand."

Odd that he says "reasonableness" here, at least I've always thought it odd. Not a typical Pauline word perhaps. Except that it is the antithesis of quarreling. The ESV Study Bible footnote says of this word: "Reasonableness is crucial for maintaining community; it is the disposition that seeks what is best for everyone and not just for oneself."

Which reminds me of something Paul said earlier in this same letter:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Meekness. You begin to see that our oneness must be Christ-centered. We rejoice in the Lord because Christ has made such rejoicing possible, opening the way. But all our quarreling is self-centered, not Christ-centered.

Years ago, I was in a quarreling church. It was awful. People seemed to have nothing in common except which side they were on in the great ongoing quarrel. It was devestating, sinful, God-dishonoring, Christ-spurning, and a dreadful testimony to the world.

Which brings me back to the meek. Jesus says they're the ones who are going to inherit everything. Yes, the whole world! It's all going to be theirs! James says we quarrel because we desire what we not not have, and by quarreling we hope to get what we desire, but here is James' brother, Jesus, saying by implication, guess what, it doesn't work that way. I'm going to upend your selfish expectations and give everything to the meek, who never fought for anything, and who in this world's system were therefore always the losers in the great game of getting.

Now back to Paul: so why don't you two who have been quarreling just rejoice in the Lord together. What could be more reasonable than that! And instead of pleading with God for that which you've been quarreling for,

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

See if you're anxious about nothing, it's going to change the way you pray. Instead of praying in the wrong spirit, out of our frustrated desire, we're praying out of our oneness in Christ, our rejoicing, and I would suggest certain kinds of long-time wants are just going to pale in that atmosphere, and we'll be praying with thanksgiving for what we've been given instead of out of frustrated desires. Amazing! And then the peace of God guards our hearts and minds!

[Cross-posted at Mount Jesus]

Thoughts On Meekness

So I recently started journaling through the "sermon on the mount." I have a nice little Moleskine notebook, and a mechanical pencil with a very useful eraser, and I sit down each morning to think about a passage, and to scribble those thoughts down. I don't say this is all deep and insightful thinking, but I do think the process is very helpful. It's a way, I suppose, of doing this:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Anyway, I was thinking about meekness this morning, because of course Jesus said the meek are blessed, because they will inherit the earth.

Have you ever thought about that? How utterly nonsensical it sounds! I used to work under a fellow who was aggressively disdainful of Christianity, and his critique ultimately rested right here. He'd say something like this: "Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth. What could be more ridiculous? The meek will inherit nothing but a boot in the face. This world is for the strong, not the meek."

Well, you'd have to admit, that does seem a little more in accord with reality, does it not? Anyway, here's my own little definition: Meekness is a quiet humility, a willingness to be second, or tenth, or last -- even to be completely overlooked. It is the opposite of self-assertiveness. A meek person may even be willing to endure injustice rather than by his own behavior discredit Jesus and his Gospel of grace or resist the will of God. For example:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Jesus did not choose to defend himself before Pilate. By the same token, he did resist the devil when he was tempted three times in the desert at the start of his ministry. It was in subservience to the will of God, which he knew to be better than any temptation the devil might offer, that he resisted. So you see, meekness isn't always going along. Meekness is really a matter of whom one serves. God, or self.

Meekness was personified by, of all people, a Roman centurion:

"Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

You see, ultimately, meekness indicates subservience, and the real question (as I just said) is subservience to whom? The centurion, in understanding the authority of Jesus over sickness, demonstrated his faith in Jesus, of course, but that faith manifested itself in meekness.

Paul, who seems anything but a meek man, was always willing to be last, and his service to the Gospel of Christ was always self-sacrificing. At times certain people wanted to worship him as a god, and that horrified him. He would not allow it. And to the very un-meek Corinthians he described the nature of apostleship:

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

Christian meekness is always associated with service and with endurance. Put aside are self-esteem, self-defense, boasting, jostling for leadership, endless tales of personal triumphs, and the monopolizing of conversation in order to control perception.

Finally, it is in endurance that the diamond at the core of meekness shows itself. Endurance, that is, in the cause of Christ. Even as Jesus said the first shall be last and the last first, the meek exemplify this reality by their willingness to be last, not only once or twice, but as a matter of course. Last, that is, in the world's assessment, last in power, last in status, last in praise, if in so doing they may win one soul for the kingdom. Paul said, "we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ."