Savage Gentleness
I love the word ethereal. It means “of or relating to the regions beyond the earth; marked by unusual delicacy or refinement.” I love it so much because it is the exact opposite of me. I am not tall and willowy. I do not glide when I walk, and I certainly don’t mesmerize anyone with my fairy-like beauty.
Nope - I am the exact opposite of ethereal. I am short and compact - built for strength and power, not gliding. I walk like the speaker’s mistress in Shakespeare's Sonnet 130: “when she walks, treads on the ground.” A friend (yes, a FRIEND!) once told me I walk like a sumo wrestler! And beauty? Please! Round face, brown eyes, and brown hair that grows slower than a snail slithers that’s also thin AND fine so it looks like I only have six strands total…and that’s just from the neck up. Nothing about my appearance would make me stand out – there’s nothing ethereal about me. What’s worse, I am so clumsy! A day does not go by without me spilling something, knocking something over, or bumping into something.
This brings me to the Gentleness Fruit of the Spirit. How can someone like me, who wrote about the exact opposite in Growing Faithfulness, possibly grow Gentleness? I’m not built for it! I’m not designed with the kind of soil to grow that kind of seed. That takes someone ethereal.
Or does it?
The more I study scripture, the more I pray and listen for God, the more He reveals to me that in so many things, my perspective is all wrong.
I ask God how someone who is not gentle can grow gentleness, and God shows me I’m looking at it all wrong.
God is the example.
Author Bob Groff said, “I Am. When you have all the power, you don’t need all the words.” God has all the power, and yet he spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). In Proverbs, Solomon spoke about a gentle answer diffusing anger (Proverbs 15:1). Of course, we have multiple examples of Jesus calming storms and hearts with gentle words and a gentle spirit.
Matthew 11:29 says, “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.” Jesus - the Word made flesh - is gentle and humble in heart, though He has all the power. He is absolutely ethereal.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Fruit of the Spirit of Faithfulness in Growing Faithfulness. That blog was about holding fast to THE truth of God in the scriptures and not bowing to the world’s version of truth. Growing Faithfulness requires a measure of savagery. Growing Faithfulness is God destroying the earth by flood and Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone. Growing Faithfulness is Jesus in the temple driving out the money changers. Growing Faithfulness is about focusing on God.
Growing Gentleness, on the other hand, is about focusing on people. It seems like it can easily be done by someone who isn’t gentle when we invest the time in people to see what they need to receive Jesus. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me,” (Matthew 25:35-36).
For me, spending enough time with people to figure out what they need (or simply asking them) isn’t too hard. It’s the other side of that coin that presents the difficulties. I am built for Growing Faithfulness, not Gentleness, and I went to God with this struggle as I was trying to write this blog.
God reminded me of Peter.
Peter was one of Jesus’ disciples, one of the inner 12, and the one who was built like me: Strong, unmoving, and unafraid of action. The kind of person who is blunt and to the point. He wasn’t Willy Wonka - he didn’t sugar-coat anything! Peter was so tough that Jesus started calling him Peter, which means “the rock,” (his birth name was Simon), and said that on the rock of Peter Jesus would build His church.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, when Jesus told his disciples one of them was going to betray him, Peter vehemently denied he would, and later he even cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant in his defense of Jesus! But then Peter did what Jesus said he would do that Peter aggressively said he wouldn’t - Peter denied Jesus three times! But Jesus set the example of Gentleness when, after His resurrection, Jesus restored Peter’s strength by telling Peter to feed His sheep. After Jesus' ascension, Peter goes on to do just that, and he becomes an example of Jesus' gentleness even while he remained the rock.
Growing the Fruit of Gentleness isn’t about being soft, easy, quiet, or compliant. The Fruit of Gentleness is the Holy Spirit in us, flowing out of us and into others for them to experience the Peace and Strength of God.
I think the Fruit of Gentleness must be the last to sprout and grow because it doesn’t happen from any one action or intention - it is the culmination of ALL our actions that are Christ-focused and for God’s glory. “Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight,” (1 Peter 3:4).
It is the complete manifestation of Christ in us that cannot be forced or faked because it is God Good. “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near,” (Philippians 4:5).
It is the gentleness of Jesus.
It is ethereal.
AMEN
