Being Meek...

In my reading yesterday I came across the Beatitudes and their relationship to the 12 steps.  One of my counselors shared that the Beatitudes are part of the basis for the program, but this is the first time that I've seen them layed out in such a way.  I found it in the Celebrate Recover Bible from Rick Warren.

Here's how they go...

Step 1 - "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Matthew 5:3
Step 2 - "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4
Step 3 - "Blessed are the meek." Matthew 5:5
Steps 4 and 5 - "Blessed are the pure in heart." Matthew 5:8
Steps 6 and 7 - "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." Matthew 5:6
Steps 8 and 9 - "Blessed are the merciful." Matthew 5:7 and "Blessed are the peacemakers" Matthew 5:9
Step 12 - "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness."

I didn't know that there is a basis for the steps in the beatitudes when I first entered treatment.  But I can assure you that I was able to relate to feeling "poor in spirit" in a way I never had before.  When I have read the Beatitudes in the past, it was often difficult to relate to these terms because they almost sound like they must represent someone else.  Poor people we see on the street, or people who can't stand up for themselves, or just "losers" in general.  I have always felt pretty self-sufficient, pretty capable.  Not exactly poor or meek.

But it wasn't just the humility of checking into treatment that made me feel poor in spirit.  I realized that while I had been drinking I was incredibly poor in spirit.  Now that doesn't men that God was going to bless me while I was drinking, but it was the "bottom" that was required to turn back to God.  It took hitting that bottom to make me realize that I had strayed so far and needed help.  And being poor in spirit is something that God does bless if we turn to Him and just ask.  It is something I should actually strive for day by day.  For after all, if we are not poor in spirit - what do we need God for?

But "meek?"  What's up with that?  Typically when we read this we think, "OK, so I'm supposed to go around letting everybody walk all over me, I guess."  But a great pastor I had in NYC shared some insight on this once.  The Greek word for "meek" is praos, and the original definition of this word was "becoming tamed, as a wild animal is tamed."  One of the wildest animals that humans are the most successful in taming is the horse.  The strong, beautiful, capable horse.  And for thousands of years, when tamed, these beasts provided for our very way of life.  They are such amazing, beautiful creatures, yet it takes learning how to take the bit in the mouth, and be led by men, before their calm and gentle nature can be truely appreciated.  James 3:3 says "When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal."

So, being meek, actually doesn't necessarily mean that we are weak and tend to let people walk all over us.  It means that even though we are beautiful, strong "wild animals," we can be tamed by our obedience to God.  That really shed a whole new light on what it meant to be meek.  And for once it made sense, being meek isn't weak - it's being obedient and tame.

One of the ways that we must be obedient, is to try and become less selfish and realize that trying to control other people will only lead us to anger and resentment.  Someone at the meeting last night shared how it was in his nature to get upset when someone in the family didn't put the dishes away right, or stack the groceries in the cart according to his system of appropriate order.  I could certainly relate to that.  My poor husband.  I can't tell you the number of times I have gotten annoyed with him, because he wasn't doing something the way that I thought it should be done.  After all, I always thought, if you are going to do something - you should make the effort to do it right, right?  And of course, that always made the problem his. He wasn't doing it right (my right, which of course is - well, right.) :)

Another example of being selfish and ego is the need to always be right.  I have spent plenty of time talking or noting or focusing on how other people are wrong.  I know my husband feels that I am incapable of admitting that I am wrong.  I have always insisted that I do it when I am wrong - it's just that happens so infrequently that it seems like never.

So now that I see these behaviors and can recognize how annoying they must be to live with in a person, I hope to recognize them as they arrive and take another track.  When something doesn't get put away the way I would like it done, why not wait until my husband has helped, and then later adjust the organization of those items?  Afterall, I'm the one that has to have them just so.  And maybe someday I'll decided that it's not worth that effort, but for now, if it's important to me, then what's the harm in doing it myself?  When a discussion begins to border on argument - why not just concede the point, regardless of whether I'm actually right or not.  Who cares?  Is it really worth a bad Saturday afternoon?  Who knows, maybe that person is even right?  Anything is possible after all. :)

Which brings me back to the Beatitudes.  Let's remember that they all begin "Blessed are..." The point is not to list some behaviors that we should all strive for, meekness, purity, righteous, etc. The point is that, when we learn to harness these behaviors and find a place for them in our lives and our spirit, we will be blessed by God.  Learning to obey God and submit our lives to His care in "meekness" will open up new possibilities in our lives and enrich them.  Being "poor in spirit" and therefore seeking God out to help manage our lives will allow Him to work through us and bless us in ways that we never could have accomplished all on our own.