If you are a d issa tis fied C h r is t ian . . . and one who is w ill ing to do something about it . . . th is a r t ic le may well be the most important you have ever read
Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.” Not a Human Mouse The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than an gels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He rests perfectly con tent to allow God to place His own values. He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price-tag and real worth will come into its own. Then the right eous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. He is willing to wait for that day. In the meantime he will have at tained a place of soul-rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meek ness brings. Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense. By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the com mon human desire to put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward poverty. For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us of a false sense of shame. There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like ro dents within their hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. The
learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by compari son with those of another rich man. So-called society runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better. Let no one smile this off. These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and unnatural way of life. And the psy chology created by years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. To all the victims of the gnaw ing disease Jesus says, “ Ye must be come as little children.” For little children do not compare; they re ceive direct enjoyment from what they have without relating it to some thing else or someone elsp. Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has something larger or better. At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their tender souls, and it never leaves them until Jesus sets them free. The Burden of Artificiality Another source of burden is arti ficiality. I am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into their poor, empty souls. So they are never relaxed. Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may be trapped into saying something common or stupid. Traveled people are afraid that they may meet some Marco Polo who is able to describe some remote place where they have never been. This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life. Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense:
“ Courses” are offered in this or that field of human learning frankly ap pealing to the victim’s desire to shine at a party. Books are sold and clothes and cosmetics are peddled by playing continually upon this desire to ap pear what we are not. Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus’ feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be every thing; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have noth ing of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are. The heart of this world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. There is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of Christ. Good keen reasoning may help slight ly^ but so strong is this vice that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else. To men and women everywhere Jesus says, “ Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” The rest He offers is the rest of meek ness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself. He calls it my yoke, and He walks at one end while we walk at thé other. Lord, make me childlike. Deliver me from the urge to compete with another for place or prestige or po sition. I would be simple and artless as a little child. Deliver me from pose and pretense. Forgive me ■ for thinking of myself. Help me to forget myself and find my true peace in be holding Thee. That Thou mayest an swer this prayer I humble myself before Thee. Lay upon me Thy easy yoke of self-forgetfulness that through it I may find rest. END.
J A N U A R Y , 1 9 5 5
15
Made with FlippingBook HTML5