Make Me Meek

SCOFF (verb): to speak to someone or about something in a scornfully derisive or mocking way

If you’ve read this blog much at all, you’re probably aware of how much I love words. Here’s a fun one: “scoff”. Say it with a British accent and an offended look on your face. Think Professor McGonagall. Or Dame Judi Dench.

It came to mind during a recent interaction when I felt someone was scoffing at me. Being scoffed at is NOT pleasant. It is insulting. Yet it seems that scoffing has become a new American pastime.

Our favorite celebrities and political figures and social media personalities . . . they’re generally the folks who have witty one-liners to slam the people we disagree with. All the memes we pass around gleefully . . . they’re bursting with contempt and mockery. We saturate ourselves in it every day. It’s no wonder it starts flowing out of our own mouths without our even realizing it.

Scornful derision. Mocking. Let’s be honest: it’s terribly unattractive. I mean, it’s an ugly, ugly look for a child of God. Nobody should want to have anything to do with us.

It’s a habit we need to break, friends.

I’ve had to deal with a couple of really difficult people this fall (one in particular who is stalking my thoughts at the moment). People questioning not only my actions, but my motives. Now, that’s a hard one for me. I mean, I know I make mistakes sometimes; I’m generally pretty good, I think, at acknowledging them and making amends when I can. But to be told that I don’t care – that my behavior was coldly intentional – the injustice of that accusation hits hard.

My instinct when facing such offense is . . . well, to scoff. To defend myself by putting the other person down. She’s so screwed up. Everybody knows it. Look at her kids. Look at her life. Nobody likes her anyway.

But Jesus is putting the kibosh on that thinking for me. As easy as it would be to meditate on this lady’s hatefulness and idiocy, he’s opening my eyes to . . . her wounds. The damage in her soul. Her desperate need to feel like she’s not a failure. Her ache for acceptance. For security. For love.

I can’t scoff at that. I’ve been there, too.

Y’all, I have to be real here: I want to think badly of this person. That is satisfying on so many levels. That is the easy way to unruffle my feathers and feel good about myself and my life. But when did “easy” become the goal?

I’ve been given the goal quite clearly: Love them as I have loved you. Jesus loved me at my worst – and still does. It’s easy to love the lovable. But I don’t think easy love fulfills the command. I need to love when it’s hard. Love, and not scoff.

The word “meek” is a good biblical word that the world has butchered for us. A good definition I read recently was “strength and power held in check”. Meekness is being strong enough to submit – and LOVE – because the other person needs Jesus more than you need your rights.

Make me meek, Father. Help me love when it’s hard to love.