Moroni 7

(June 29, 2015)

                Meekness, Mormon makes clear here, is inseparable with faith.  This, of course, makes perfect sense.  We as human beings want power, control, status, and all of the trappings that goes with that.  Meekness is wholly inconsistent with the natural man – not only is it difficult, it serves no purpose.

                But, when our faith is real and vibrant, meekness becomes the obvious choice.  We have no need of ourselves to fight our battles because (1) the Lord is more than capable of fighting His own battles; and (2) we recognize that very often those we fight aren’t even our enemies in the first place.

                Meekness is hard – it is very difficult to back down in the face of opposition or persecution (especially when that opposition or persecution is unfair).  It is so tempting to take the battle to those who hurt us, or to “defend” ourselves.  We can rationalize our behavior by insisting that we are only protection ourselves from being the victims (as if the Anti-Nephi-Lehis weren’t victims when they were slaughtered), and justify our response.  But when we do that, we are relying on the arm of flesh and demonstrating a lack of faith.

                I am not saying it is easy, by any means.  I struggle with it on an ongoing basis.  But it is the right way to live our lives and the way that Christ lived His life.  He could, with a word, have destroyed His enemies at any point.  Instead, He was meek in the face of their persecution.  That is the example for each of us to follow.