Food For Thought

             Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29)

The topic of gentleness came to mind this morning. I’ve already forgotten what brought it to mind, but I immediately thought of an incident that took place while I was working at Sears. I don’t remember the specifics of that incident either, except that I thought, “Oh, that’s being gentle. Oh, no, Father, I don’t want to be gentle. Don’t tell me to be gentle.”

The problem is that we often think of gentleness as weakness. We’re afraid that if we’re gentle, we’ll get tromped on, misused, and otherwise abused. I found a picture to go with the image God gave me of gentleness. I can’t find it now, but it was a draft horse (Clydesdale, Percheron, or Shire) standing in front of a boy who is kneeling or sitting. One strike with one hoof is all it would take for that horse to kill the boy, but the boy and the photographer aren’t afraid because the horse is gentle. It doesn’t use all the power it could because it doesn’t need to. What we may not think about is the fact that when that same horse is pulling something, even if that job requires all its physical strength, its attitude can still be one of gentleness, because it’s not using power it could use to attack someone or impose its will on them.

In a similar way, surgeons can be gentle when they slice a person open. A police office may be gentle when he tackles someone instead of putting a bullet in them. Parents can be gentle when they discipline or correct their children, because they don’t allow themselves to physically or verbally abuse the children. And Jesus was being gentle when He made a whip and drove the sellers from the temple courts.

Now, I’m not going to suggest that anyone can say they’re being gentle because they’re not murdering everyone.  You can use more force than necessary without using all possible force. Consider how much force is necessary

to change a diaper,

to free a dragonfly from some netting,

to save the life of a hostage,

to stand up to a charging bull elephant or grizzly bear,

to refuse to bow to the most recent Haman (Esther’s enemy) in your life

Clearly, the gentleness used in one instance is not the gentleness you’d use in another.

Gentleness, then, has to do with our awareness of our circumstances, the other individuals or things involved, and ourselves, and working in a way that demands the least of all concerned within the bounds of the situation.

The other piece of the gentleness puzzle is that it requires that this all be done in an effort to promote the well-being of all involved. Food for thought.