Meekness - 2 Corinthians 10:1

10:1 - I listened to 2 Corinthians 10 on my way to work this morning and I couldn’t for the life of me follow what Paul was talking about, and I usually retain audio pretty well. So I just figured this would be another “let’s just push through this and get it over with,” kind of chapter, but the more I research chapter 10, the more interesting it becomes, so I just might be able to convince myself to learn something here. Paul “beseech(es) you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” to listen and obey. Most of the worldly leaders try to convince people to do things or believe certain ways by using more stick than carrot. They project a persona of strength in the worldly way, such as physical strength, being critical of one’s opponents, speaking loudly and interrupting others. I think about this as a presidential debate, what would Jesus sound like as a candidate? I doubt that he would point out the weaknesses in his opponents, he might even speak to their strong points, in fact I know that’s what he would do. He would use logic, compassion, and scripture to substantiate his positions. The concept of “meekness” is really something that I’ve always struggled with because I have always likened it to submissiveness and timidity, and I am not submissive nor am I timid. I refuse to subject myself to any man or woman, and I’m fortunate to be in that position because I realize that this is a very privileged opinion to hold. I could easily be physically forced into submission in another culture or time or place and I’m grateful that I at least have the opportunity to try to independent. Anyway, when I learned in the gospel that Jesus commanded us to be “meek,” I always assumed that that meant to be submissive to Church leadership such as bishops, stake presidents, general authorities, etc. And I had had some very adversarial encounters with Church leadership. The ones that I had problems with where just men, humans who had their own problems and were unable to see me as a kid who needed help. They did what they knew how to do and it devastated me and I left the Church. I had a testimony in the truthfulness of the gospel, but I refused to subject myself to the authority of men who I honestly believed didn’t care about me. I knew the gospel was true and that one day I would be back but I decided that I wouldn’t come back until I was strong enough to never leave again if local church leadership ever hurt me again. This made sense at the time because I was still living in an abusive household and I couldn’t leave yet. I had to get some space, independence, and perspective from that disfunction before I could adequately commit myself to going back. This is why the concept of “meekness” is hard for me. I’ve heard it defined as “strength under control,” and I like that. My difficulty implementing “meekness” is not a finished job. I absolutely struggle with it every single day, but I’ve adapted some of the principles to fit me and my healing lifestyle. I like the idea that “meekness is not being easily irritated.” I am irritated a lot, I am not a nice person, and I am usually pretty hostile and aggressive, so trying to put a damper on that has been difficult. But I now give people the benefit of the doubt, instead of assuming that they did something horrible and letting loose on them, I will think about the ways that this could be a misunderstanding, or what happened from their perspective. I am not easily offended anymore. I realize that hurt people, hurt people, so if someone does or says something about me or to me, then it’s because they themselves are suffering. This is not a no brainer for me and I have to consciously think about it. In fact I really need to work on it right now. I’ve also taken “meekness” to not always needing to be right or to have everyone hear my thoughts because I am opinionated and loud. I try not to fight with people as much, I will only say something if I feel it’s a safety issue or something really serious. I try to treat people with kindness, I try to be nice and complimentary. I try, but I am very tired. The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as teaching, “the Greek rendition of the world meek in the New Testament, by the way, is ‘gentle and humble.’ Actually, meekness is not an attribute which is essential only in itself, said Moroni. It is also vital because one cannot develop those other crucial values- faith, hope, and charity- without meekness. In the ecology of the eternal attributes, these cardinal characteristics are inextricably bound up together. Among them, meekness is often the initiator, facilitator, and consolidator.” This begs the question, how does meekness facilitate the development of faith, hope, and charity? To develop and grow faith, we must be humble enough to accept teachings from God and Church leaders. Meekness is obeying the commandments, even if we don’t want to, or even if we don’t understand it, or even if we think it is stupid. It’s like this mask thing, the Church came out asking members to wear masks in public. Now, I work in medicine and I was in the army so I have extensive experience wear big, heavy, incumbering things on my face. I fully recognize that we could have corona virus under control in a matter of weeks if everyone would just wear a stupid mask. I wear my mask at work, when I go out to the store, etc. But if I’m outside and not around anyone else, then I won’t wear it. I think it’s mostly going to affect how I am around family members. Like if I go to my grandma’s house, there’s like 20-30 people there every time and no one wears a mask, and if fact, if someone does, everyone freaks out about it and gives them a hard time until they either leave or take it off. But I’m going to be obedient to this counsel, even though I don’t want to and wear a mask at my grandma’s house and when I visit people that I don’t see all the time. Meekness, as in gentleness and humility, builds faith when we are willing to do what God commands, because we know that he knows better and we want to be obedient. It’s recognizing that we don’t know everything and would benefit from following the Savior. If Jesus was meek, and we try to emulate his behavior, as we seek to modify our own thoughts and actions, we grow in our ability to be personable and focus on what is really important. Meekness is accepting our own insecurities, not as fundamental character flaws, but as something to work through, opportunities for growth. Interestingly, humility takes the cynicism out of life. If there’s no higher power, then there’s no reason to be humble. In a godless world, it truly is survival of the fittest and you can have whatever you want as long as you are willing to commit the most violence to get it. I think that even though our society is leaning more agnostic/atheist now, there’s still the light of Christ in everyone. There’s no point in obedience if you don’t believe that it’s for some higher purpose. Why would anyone modify their natural human tendencies if ultimately it didn’t matter? So the hope that everything we do and every hardship that we suffer will be for our benefit can only come when we humble ourselves enough to accept that there might be a plan higher than our, which is meekness. And finally, how does meekness develop a person’s charity? Charity is the pure love of Christ; it’s loving other people the same way that Jesus does. I believe that this characteristic depends on the “gentle” aspect of meekness. Gentleness doesn’t want to hurt anyone, or make anyone feel bad. This goes with kindness towards others, but also when it comes to chastening others as well. If we truly want what’s best for someone, then when acting upon spiritual promptings, we might have to say things to them that are difficult to hear. But that’s how showing forth an increase in love afterward works. Our humility allows us to see ourselves as people and take the focus off of our constant inward attention so that we can see others as people too. I think so many of us spend so much time viewing people as objects in our story that sometimes we forget that they are children of God just like us. When we see others as human beings, then we have compassion for their suffering, we want to help them, and eventually we learn to love them as the Savior does. Meekness shows us that we are not always right, that we are not always the most important, that we have room to learn and improve. It recognizes the humanity in other people, and honestly, I think the biggest thing is that meekness makes us take the attention off of ourselves so that we can finally see other people, and that’s a really powerful concept that I’ve never heard before and will have to think about.