My twin brother Roger and his wife Shirley moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, many years ago. One day they stopped at a McDonald’s to get coffee. Shirley went to the counter and ordered a “regular coffee.” The young man behind the counter, without looking up, announced, “One senior coffee!” Shirley, not yet 50, seriously contemplated pulling him over the counter when Roger asked, “How much is that?” To which the clerk replied, “$.19.” Roger said, “Make that two senior coffees.” Roger is always the frugal one.

To be honest, I did exaggerate to make a point — anyone who knows Shirley knows that she would never have resorted to violence. But the reality is that we often find ourselves on the receiving end of unjust comments, criticism, job performance reviews — you name it. How should we respond when that happens? I can tell you that I have had occasions when my response was not glorifying to God. Most of us have a high opinion of how well we do our job, and there’s really nothing wrong with that. But God desires a spirit of meekness, which is a challenge for men and women.

In his book The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer included a chapter titled “Meekness and Rest” based on this passage of Scripture:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

Jesus sets forth two contrasting positions — a burden and a rest. He then goes on to describe the burden of pride.

During one assignment, my superior officer took exception to my Christian witness. Despite the excellent performance of the unit, he gave me an overall “kind of okay” evaluation. That pretty much guaranteed I would not make my next promotion. I was incensed! How dare he ignore the results I had achieved in this unit! Notice the “I” word there? I went home for a little pity party. The Lord, however, was not coming to my defense. He asked me a tough question: “Who did this work?” “You did,” I replied. “Then why do you want credit for it?”

At this point, my prayer time wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I picked up where I left off in Tozer’s book. This is what I read next.

“The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol.” (The Pursuit of God, p. 112)

Ouch! This wasn’t helping, so I decided to punt on reading. That night during our home Bible study, I related my tale of woe to my group. Instead of getting sympathy, I had a sweet gray-haired saint tell me that I needed to thank my boss for pointing out where I was not coming up to his standards. Seriously?

The fact was, she was right — I had invited God into my work, and He did amazing things. But even though I sought to give Him the glory, here I was pouting because someone had offered an “affront to my idol.” I went back to my superior (I’d like to tell you that I did it immediately, but, truth be told, I dug my heels in for a while) and said exactly what my saintly sister had suggested. He appeared astonished at my confession.

Meekness is rest! Solomon once wrote, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) I have found that when I rest in Him, He will step in and accomplish His purposes. The commander above my superior completely overrode his evaluation and rated me above all of my peers, resulting in my promotion before I left. But my relationship with my superior completely changed, and he had a greater openness to my sharing once my ego was out of the way.

Meekness is what separates us from others. Are you resting or wrestling?

What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!