Upfront May 21, 2012 Issue

Meek can be mighty

Jeff Ward-Bailey, Staff Editor

I remember being really confused by the concept of humility when I was in Sunday School.

It seemed so counterintuitive: Humility, I reasoned, meant shyness and serving other people. But so many of the great biblical leaders—men who came to acquire immense public power—are characterized as humble: Moses is “very meek” (Numbers 12:3); Daniel “kneel[s] upon his knees three times a day” (Daniel 6:10); Jesus Christ describes himself as “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). I don’t think I realized until later that humility doesn’t mean being a doormat. Instead, the willingness to follow God’s direction and set a personal agenda aside is actually a source of strength and poise, and even—as in the case of these Bible characters—of what we might perceive as power or influence.

Janet Clements explains in this issue’s lead article: “Moses accomplished all that he did, not because he was a super hero with a big ego, but because he was humble and acknowledged the one Ego, the I AM. What a secure and peaceful position humility provides to all of us!” (p. 4). That’s it, isn’t it? Our choice isn’t between outsize personal power and cringing devoutness; rather, humility gives us the grace to meet life’s challenges. Elsewhere in our cover section, Allison Knight shares how praying to be more receptive to God’s direction uplifted her thinking, erasing feelings of jealousy during a musical theater production (p. 6).

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