Meek Speak

Pondering this morning on the connection between meekness and feeling safe in someone's presence.

We all have those people - at least I hope we do - whose very essence of being draws us into a circle of peace.  When you're with them, you are convinced you are the most important person on the planet.  You realize you feel welcome and regarded, safe to be yourself in all the best ways they seem to bring out in you.  It's like Micah described in chapter 4 of his prophecy, when he paints the picture of ultimate peace with the phrase, "and no one will make them afraid."  (Verse 4...see "Micah and Micro Peace," December 12/23)

Meekness comes in to this because I was reminded of a rendering of one of the Beatitudes yesterday, and it connected things for me.  Matthew 5:5, as part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, reads most commonly in most translations as "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." 

Like you, I imagine, the English word "meek" doesn't conjure up images of something I automatically want to aspire to.  But Eugene Peterson, who did an amazing thing when he carefully, bit by bit paraphrased the entire English Bible into everyday contemporary language, has a definition of meekness that intrigues me.

He writes, "You are blessed when you're content with just who you are - nothing more and nothing less.  That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."  The Message Bible

Go with me on this.  Assuming this definition of meekness, what if that's why someone can make us feel so safe?  Because they are not engaged in any grappling for status and credibility themselves; because they don't need to compete with anyone or anything, including us as we sit with them, for attention or significance; because they know and understand themselves and carry in their spirit a deep contentment in that knowledge and understanding.  It would seem that they themselves are not afraid, not fear-driven, so in turn they can invite us into a spirit-led space free of any psychological struggle to simply be seen and heard.  They can offer this to us because they aren't struggling for that themselves, since they already own 'everything that can't be bought.'

Contrast that with being with someone who seems compelled to grab all the attention they can get, who takes up more than their fair share of the space in the room, who pushes agendas and manipulates environments so that their own talents and abilities, education and expertise can be showcased?  

Or, in a similar but opposite way, being with someone who uses too many words to over-explain with pre-emptive strikes and self-demeaning self-obsession, and any other hyphenations that still make it all about them.  Those who are not at all content with who they are.  

Either way, in the presence of such folks, we can quickly feel like there's no room for us at all.

I don't mean to set us up for doing some dime-store psychology on the annoying people in our lives, and pointing fingers and pasting labels at or on others.  My ponderings turn the attention inward.

How meek am I?

What if meekness was indeed the quality of being 'content with just who you are - nothing more and nothing less?'  How content am I, and what work might I need to allow inside of me, so that I don't bring my own struggle for status and credibility into my interactions with others?

And now another concept ponders in my brain:  Re-anchoring.  But, not today.

Oh this journey!  I love/hate this about the whole spiritual formation thing.  It never ends.  The Spirit is always pulling back another curtain, inviting me into the next space of becoming.  

And so for this Thursday, I hope you find good spaces of your own.

Spaces to become more content with the amazing creature you are.

Spaces to offer others some safety in this crazy world of ours.