To conclude my mini-series on love, I'd like to discuss a lesson I actually picked up a couple of years ago. I'm a commentary nerd. That's right. I ask for them for Christmas and stuff. Call me Poindexter and tape up my glasses. Its not a secret I love to learn, so I was reading through a commentary on I Corinthians and found such a great insight regarding the patient and kind side of love. The author made a comment I can't remember completely but its went something like this, "love reacts with patience and responds with kindness."
It dawned on me sometime later that this is what meekness means. I think a correct definition is "power under control," and the metaphor often used is that of a wild stallion being tamed. Raw power being tamed, not distinguished, but tamed for more useful purposes. When you look at nature, and at churches and bars and offices and homes, there are a thousand different examples of power out of control. It often reminds me of a wild animal backed into a corner. Threatened, the animal lashes out in anger, fear, and frustration. What ensues is always destructive, for at least one party involved. Usually both. Meekness, means keeping your cool, reacting patiently because you know you're powerful, and out of control your power could do some serious damage. On some level I think patience and absorption are much the same.
Having refused to lash out, we remind ourselves that we are human and not simply animals. There is more to us than our instincts. This life is not kill or be killed, and love is the only way strong enough to stop fear, hate, and dominative power in its tracks. Because after we react with patience, we refuse the way of calculated revenge and we respond with kindness; always exposing evil, hate, and injustice, and and sometimes turning an enemy into a comrade.
[God, increase my capacity to love meekly]
Live Love.