by Marcia Sanders
So, what are you doing this weekend?” Jason asked David as they headed down the sidewalk toward home.
“I’m supposed to go to . . . oomph!” David gasped as a boy his size raced by, bumping David’s shoulder and causing him to fall to the ground.
“What was that all about?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know.” Jason helped David up, and the two headed home with David limping slightly from a twisted ankle.
“Man!” Jason exclaimed. “You should let that guy have it! Tell him how rude it was to just plow into you like that. Give him a piece of your mind! If you don’t, people will walk all over you and run you down like that jerk just did.”
“Maybe you’re right,” David responded. “But I’ll have to think about it.”
“Huh. If it were me, there’d be no ‘thinking’ about it. I’d go right up to him and make sure he knew he messed with the wrong guy.”
“Maybe I will,” said David.
Jason shook his head. “You don’t want a reputation of being a spineless wimp!”
With that, David went into his house, and Jason headed on home.
Mom immediately asked about the limp and listened attentively as David explained what had happened.
“I don’t know what to do, Mom. I don’t want to be known as some weakling who lets people run all over him. In Matthew 11, Jesus said we’re to be gentle and humble, but does that mean I have to let people push me around?”
“Well,” Mom answered, “what do you think it means to be humble?”
“I think of it as being weak, someone that other people walk over and have no respect for,” David replied.
“I see,” Mom responded. “Then you see Jesus as weak — someone others walked over?”
“No, not at all! Jesus was one of the strongest, bravest men who ever lived. He endured beatings, insults, even death by crucifixion. How could you even ask that?”
“Because you just defined humility that way, and Jesus was described as being meek and lowly — synonyms for humble.”
David smiled. “You know, that reminds me of what the pastor said in his sermon last Sabbath about meekness being represented by war horses from the past. Back in the days when horses were the primary way soldiers moved in battle, a good war horse was critical, but only if it always obeyed its master’s commands. How long could a soldier last with a horse that wasn’t subject to its master? That’s what humility means — not doing our will, but God’s.”
Mom nodded. “Character traits like humility set us apart from non-believers. They show others that we’re following our Lord Jesus, not our own will.”
David beamed. “And Matthew 5 tells us that the gentle will inherit the earth. That’s definitely a goal to work toward!”
Marcia Sanders writes from Fort Smith, AR, where she attends the Church of God (Seventh Day) with her husband, Randy.
