<\/p>\n
\u201cMeekness is not weakness\u201d (Sir William Gurney Benham).<\/p>\n
MEEKNESS IS A MUCH-MISUNDERSTOOD QUALITY. In modern English, the word \u201cmeek\u201d is used two different ways. It may mean either \u201cshowing patience and humility\u201d or \u201ceasily imposed on.\u201d Unfortunately, the second concept is the one that many people think of first. The stereotype of a meek person is that of a weak and wimpy pushover. Nowadays, when being successful requires \u201cswimming with the sharks,\u201d hardly anybody wants to be thought of as meek.<\/p>\n
But that view is not a fair representation of true meekness, which is anything but weak. Meekness does not mean being without strength; it means that one\u2019s strength is governed.<\/em> Any good athlete understands the principle of controlled strength. A football quarterback, for example, may have the arm strength to throw the ball seventy or eighty yards, but he wouldn\u2019t be a good quarterback if he did that every chance he got. Winning the game requires holding his strength in reserve, knowing when to throw long, when to throw short, and when not to throw at all. Similarly, a meek person may have enormous strength at his command, but meekness keeps him from using any more of it than the present moment calls for.<\/p>\n It helps, I think, to distinguish between \u201cstrength in action\u201d and \u201cstrength in reserve.\u201d It may take a lot of strength to do some things, but it may take even more to refrain from doing them. So when a person fails to do something, his inaction may be a sign of weakness or it may not be. As an outside observer, you have no way of knowing whether the person was being patient (strong) or cowardly (weak). It could be either one, depending on the person\u2019s inner motivation. But the point is this: we shouldn\u2019t assume that every instance of inaction is a sign of weakness. Sometimes a person may simply be exercising restraint. In that case, he or she is being meek \u2014 but by no means weak.<\/p>\n I would say, since I love the Arthurian legends, that it takes the strength of a \u201cknight\u201d to be meek. I haven\u2019t reached it yet, but that chivalrous quality of strength under control is an ideal that I admire.<\/p>\n \u201cThou were the meekest man and the gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies. And thou were the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest\u201d (Sir Thomas Malory).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n