TRANSCRIPT

Finding your strength and power in relation to finding your meekness and humility is a needed, conscious choice that people need to make. There's the duality, I feel, that exists; to finding your power and finding your meekness, because true, humble power and spiritual power is meekness. There is no weakness. The association that all of us make in our minds must end between meekness and weakness.

“Nothing You Do Matters Unless What You Do Matters”
I’m Amadon DellErba and this is “Get Real or Die Trying”

How we doing? Welcome to episode 32. Today I'm talking about Meekness is Not Weakness. You know, meekness is a highly misunderstood concept and it is almost used exclusively in spiritual and religious context it seems. Many people mistake meekness as weakness, but it is not the same at all. 

Meekness is an attribute of human nature and behavior. Meekness can also mean to be righteous, humble, teachable, and patient under suffering. Meekness has been contrasted with humility as referring to behavior that you have towards others, whereas humility refers to an attitude towards oneself. Realizing this for me was a very helpful thing because it is about how you treat others.

You see the psychology and emotional actions of being a person of peace, is about being meek and is about how you treat others. You see, being other oriented and being interested in others is a basic tenant of any supposedly “woke” spiritual person, I feel. 

Meekness means restraining one's own power so as to allow room for others. Wow, what a powerful concept; what a worthy pursuit. I can only talk about this concept because of my desire to become more meek, not because I am meek. I want to make that clear. A true spiritualist sees striving for higher levels of spiritual awareness like a mountain climber sees new peaks and desires to climb them; to conquer them. Well a large peak in my life that I need to start climbing is the peak of meekness. And it is likely a peak in many people's lives. 

The apostle Paul gave an example of meek behavior when writing to Timothy, he said, “The servant of the Lord must be gentle, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves.” Sir Thomas Browne explained in one of his journals, “Meekness takes injuries like pills, not chewing, but swallowing them down.” To me this indicates that meekness allows a person to overlook or forgive perceived insults or offenses. You know, it's almost become a fad today to be easily offended. That's just the culture we're in. 

Meekness is a controlled strength, but in my pursuit to understand meekness, I have come to the conclusion that you cannot truly be meek, unless you have some type of personal relationship with the Creator. You see, in its purest form, meekness is strictly a spiritual attribute, it seems. This is because you have to sacrifice your own strength and power, for true meekness puts everything in the hands of God. It's founded on a trust of something bigger than ourselves: Faith. We see it grow alongside humility and wisdom, and that it seeks another person's interest at the expense of our own. And it's pure; peaceable, gentle and open to reason. This should not, however, be confused with cowardice or weakness. Or being a doormat that people can just walk all over. Meekness is not being afraid to stand up to someone rather it's having the courage to trust in the Creator, to trust in the spiritual process to unfold, to surrender. 

In his book, “The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles” the LDS Elder David A. Bednar wrote, “Meekness is strong, not weak. Active, not passive. Courageous, not timid. Restrained, not excessive. Modest, not self-aggrandizing. And gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others.” Wow, I have a lot of room to grow in that area and what a great definition of meekness from that LDS elder.

You see, we see examples of the power of meekness, I believe, in David of Israel's life before he was made king. I feel several times he had the strength and power to take the throne for his own. And yet he rejected this self-desire and waited until he was anointed; til the time was truly right. He quieted the whisperings of flesh and submitted to the calling of spirit. He had patient, submissive, humbleness, and therefore he was great in his power. He had patience; something I lack tremendously. I mean, I could hardly wait five minutes for my coffee to steep in the French press this morning. 

Today's society is the opposite of this. Everyone is encouraged to take, take, take, and push, push push. We have an entire online world that wars against the attitude of meekness. You do not hear that you should sacrifice your self-desire for the common good. What you hear is “Pursue your selfish desire at all cost... Claim your power... Self-this... Self-that... Self-help... Self-empower…” It's all about self and selfishness. But meekness is directly related to self-control; meek people truly have self-control. Weak people lack self-control completely.

From The URANTIA Book, Jesus said, “You do well to be meek before God. And self-controlled before men, but let your meekness be out of spiritual origin and not the self-deceptive display of self-conscious sense of self righteous superiority.”

Jesus also spoke these words in The URANTIA Book: “I am indeed meek and humble in the presence of my Father, but I am equally and relentlessly inexorable. Where there is deliberate, evil doing and sinful rebellion against the will of my Father in heaven.” He was inexorable, which means essentially impossible to stop; a force to be reckoned with, relentless. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” In LDS scripture, Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus also said, “Learn of Me and listen to My words. Walk in the meekness of My Spirit and you shall have peace in Me.”

Understanding meekness for me has been a great mystery and I have not fully committed myself to the important process of pursuing more meekness in my personality. But I can say that now, more than ever, I wished to be more meek. I have suffered the pain of not being more meek in many circumstances that I should have been. And I have caused pain to others.

Meekness is a great and very high spiritual attribute. It should not be an archaic concept of the past. It should be a prevalent and present pursuit. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, or a CEO, or an influencer. Well, I truly want to start being a man of meekness, and I have the confidence to withstand the ridicule and misunderstanding that may come with that. I have the perseverance to keep trying, as I know I will fail many, many times and make a fool of myself. But I have the self-worth to keep trying. I may lack the self-control and self-mastery I strive for right now, but I won't give up in the pursuit to climb that peak. 

And truly that is because I have the assistance of my spiritual teachers to guide me, to help me, to aid me, to teach me, and to refine me; starting with my very own biological parents, Gabriel of Urantia and Niánn Emerson Chase. What a blessing it is that my parents are actually respected and honored spiritual teachers. So not only do they naturally parent me like any good parent would, but they naturally help me to ascend into higher levels of the meekness I so badly desire.

Finding your strength and power in relation to finding your meekness and humility is a needed, conscious choice that people need to make. There's the duality, I feel, that exists; to finding your power and finding your meekness, because true, humble power and spiritual power is meekness. There is no weakness. The association that all of us make in our minds must end between meekness and weakness.

So make the choice, my friends. Make the choice to walk in the quiet, gentle strength that is truly emboldened by the power of having God consciousness. True spiritual meekness is true spiritual power. Thank you.

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"Get Real or Die Trying with Amadon DellErba" is a production of Global Change Media.

And remember: "Pain is Temporary. Victory is Eternal."