A Sheathed Sword

Are you meek or are you weak?

What comes to your mind when you think of the word ‘meek’? If you are anything like I was a few years ago, you might think of someone who is quiet and lets everyone run all over them. Someone who rolls over for anything everyone else wants to do. To me, a meek person was someone with a weak character, who never really stood up for their opinions and instead allowed people to shut them down.

Did you know that meek comes from Greek? I had no idea, either, though it didn’t surprise me. The word in Greek is: prautes. What did surprise me was its definition in the Greek: a person who is forbearing, patient and slow to respond in anger; one who remains in control of themselves IN THE FACE OF INSULTS AND INJURY.

That last part is so very important to understanding how this word was used. That definition goes right along with another example from the Greek about meekness: meek signifies a sheathed sword. A sheathed sword is at a soldier’s side, but it is still in it’s carrier. There is no threat of violence, but there is a show of strength. If the soldier wants to pull it out, he can. But in the moment, the meekness of his character shows simply his strength and not his threats.

In a culture where more and more social media is bleeding into real life and people are starting to behave face-to-face as they behave behind a screen, we are seeing a decay of decency, social manners and general kindness. People scream at each other over small issues, they confront each other in an explosively emotional way. The way that we are treating each other is to accuse first and double down later and never learn or grow and certainly never walk back bad behavior. Many blame the internet, but really it is about us as humans refusing to discipline our emotions.

But discipline is what a meek person does. Someone who is meek has taken the time to discipline their emotional reactions. It isn’t that they don’t feel the emotions, but they have the discipline to not react according to their emotions. Instead, they react with patience to a violent or emotionally explosive situation. In the Greek, it refers to someone who might even react with friendliness, even when insults are turned again them. Why? Because a meek person understands that people react in ways due to many reasons. A meek person knows that inflaming the situation with more violent words, more emotional responses will only make the entire situation worse. Violence upon violence will bring disaster.

The opposite to this a a person who has not developed their character into meekness. And that person is weak. They are weak because they allow their emotions to have complete control over their reactions. When you allow yourself to be completely controlled by your emotions you are going to find yourself without friends and probably in some precarious situations.

So are you meek or you are weak? Meekness takes time to develop. it takes work and a lot of self-discipline. These days it takes going against the grain of society in social media and learning to react unlike everyone else. Cool, calm, collected, with patience and even friendliness as word are fired off and things get heated. Many people won’t like you for it, but many others will appreciate everything about your meekness.