MEEKNESS ISN’T WEAKNESS
September 2014. It was
another rush job. The designers were sending over three samples of red brick,
and they wanted me to do variations of whitewash and aging on them. The samples
arrived late. The mortar wasn’t even dry yet, but they still wanted me to finish
so they could pick them up the next day. This project was a tough one.
I was under pressure to
work quickly. I got three fans out to dry the mortar first. Then I started to
mix my colors. When somebody pushes me in a situation like this, I want to push
back. But I told myself, “Jesus is with me. It’s okay. I can
do this.”
Then the project manager
told me they were coming for the pieces two hours earlier than planned. For a
few minutes there, I mentally lost it. “What?” I
thought. “They bring me the pieces late. They aren’t even dry enough to
paint, and now they want them completed two hours earlier?” I
started to get angry, but then a strange thing happened.
My old nature of rebellion
just disappeared instantaneously as an overwhelming meekness enveloped me. I didn’t
even have to try to overcome anger or any of that. It wasn’t me trying to be
meek. It was genuine. It clothed me inside and out, and it felt really true and
good. It was like an atmosphere of meekness, through and through, beautiful,
elegant, and powerful. “This isn’t me,” I thought. But I didn’t have
the time to ponder it, so even though it felt alien, I went with it.
I finished up the samples
before the deadline, and I’m sure it was the Lord helping me on that one too. I
told my project manager he could call the guy to pick them up, and I followed
him over to the job site with my touch-up kit.
I was so calm and peaceful
in this new air of humility. I walked onto the job site in my typical work
attire: a T-shirt and painter pants that used to be white but now were about 75
percent covered in paint. My boots were also paint-spattered. I had on my hard
hat and my safety vest that didn’t fit because they only come in one size:
large. I found a place to sit on a dusty stack of bricks, but I felt like an
elegant, powerful queen in a gorgeous dress and beautiful crown. The meekness
wasn’t weakness. It made me feel tall and free.
The designer arrived and
picked the sample he said he just loved. That made me happy, but not nearly as
happy as this new humility I was experiencing.
It was great to feel
genuinely calm inside, in contrast to the uproar I usually felt in these
hurried, stressful, last-minute situations. Some part of my soul had changed. The
old me was sharp-tongued, rebellious, and angry. This new meekness had to be
the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, part of the new me, the
Christ in me: “The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law.”
Romans 7:24-25 talks about
the two natures we have in us, the old one and the new one. Only God, through
Jesus Christ, can deliver us from our old character: “Wretched and miserable man that I am!
Who will [rescue me and] set me free from this body of death [this corrupt,
mortal existence]? Thanks be to God [for my deliverance] through Jesus Christ
our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind serve the law of God,
but on the other, with my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness, my sinful
capacity—I serve] the law of sin.”
I had tried my best in the
past to be meek under stress, but even with my most vigorous efforts, it
wouldn’t last very long, and it definitely wouldn’t be true humility.
But with the miraculous
working of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rebellious, angry nature of the old
Carolyn was replaced by the pure and wonderful meekness of Jesus Christ. That’s
the new nature God intended for me to have. It had nothing to do with me
changing myself. It had everything to do with the Lord working in me to transform
me into my real self in Christ. All I did was have to desire to be more like
Him. The Spirit of Christ in me changed my soul. It took time, but the change
came, and here it is many years later, and the meekness is still here. It’s for
real.
Almost every morning, my
roommate Jane and I add this little phrase to the end of our prayer: “I can
hardly wait to see what the Lord is going to do today.” It’s an exciting life.
Love, Carolyn
QUESTIONS AND EASY
CHALLENGES
1. How do you honestly
react when someone pushes you to go faster?
2. Have you ever
experienced a fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness or temperance) come over you supernaturally? How did
it feel? Describe the experience.
3. Are there characteristics
from your old nature that have entirely disappeared? Others that have periodically
dematerialized?
4. Which of the fruits of
the Spirit would you most want to experience at this time in your life?
FREE THRU TUES. Part 3
This
section of WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH contains 14 true-life short
stories, opening your awareness of how to apply Christian principles to
everyday life and see. The chapters include:
24. THE DEVIL HAS NO AUTHORITY
25. RISE LIKE THE EAGLE ABOVE THE STORM
26. OUR SPIRITUAL FIVE SENSES
27. I KNOW THE BOSS AND I'M WITH HIM
28. GOING THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE
29. DO WE HAVE TO WAIT TIL WE DIE TO GET SOME HEAVEN?
30. SEEING IN NEW WAYS
31. GOD'S SPIRIT TOUCHES OUR SPIRIT
32. NEGATIVE PRAYERS
33. ROLLER COASTER FAITH
34. HOLDING YOUR GROUND
35. THE CICADA
36. NO GLASS CEILING
37. DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS
25. RISE LIKE THE EAGLE ABOVE THE STORM
26. OUR SPIRITUAL FIVE SENSES
27. I KNOW THE BOSS AND I'M WITH HIM
28. GOING THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE
29. DO WE HAVE TO WAIT TIL WE DIE TO GET SOME HEAVEN?
30. SEEING IN NEW WAYS
31. GOD'S SPIRIT TOUCHES OUR SPIRIT
32. NEGATIVE PRAYERS
33. ROLLER COASTER FAITH
34. HOLDING YOUR GROUND
35. THE CICADA
36. NO GLASS CEILING
37. DANGEROUS ILLUSIONS
