A Picture of Gentleness

Picture this. It’s a warm, sunny, almost spring Saturday morning. For the first time in a really long time, I get to wake up when it’s light out without an alarm. I slip out of bed to tackle the day. I have a lot to do, but it’s early, and I’m energized and ready to accomplish. I unwisely decide to skip my daily coffee date with God in favor of some much needed housework and a massive lesson planning project. Several hours into my stuff, my wonderful husband and sweet son wake up.  
 
Immediately some anxiousness stirs. When my son interrupts me a few times to tell me elaborate stories, the tension creeps up another notch. When my husband, who did choose to invest time with God that morning, comes over to show love, he is met with obvious ignoring and irritation. When I do decide to one-directionally speak to him, I am immediately aggravated when he responds back. After a minor tiff, I head upstairs to shower to squeeze in one worship song to begin to reset. Then the bluetooth speaker won’t turn on and when it does, will only play my son’s song and at a high volume, I am now at the point of blowing. I’m too embarrassed to share the final minor straw that turns me into a lion roaring in my house.  
 
Did I mention that this is all going down at the exact same time as I am needing to complete this writing on gentleness? I love God’s sense of humor. How could I possibly write about gentleness when I am the exact opposite in that moment?
 
Pastor Marco’s message (3/23/22) from the Book of Galatians teaches us about the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  We learn that gentleness is one part of this fruit and that we can not will or produce this or any of the other parts of the fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control) on our own.  We can only receive by cultivating the soil of our hearts. Later in the message, Pastor defines gentleness as humility and self forgetfulness, and the opposite is self absorbedness and superiority.  
 
Not surprisingly, I found this description confusing. In my mind, gentleness meant being soft, mild, peaceful, tolerant. I picture a wise grandmother, a civil rights activist at a lunch counter sit-in, a caretaker of large, dangerous animals. I couldn’t understand how the words “gentle” and “self” even fit in the same sentence. Thankfully, my crew helped point me to the answer. Jesus. His life, portrayed through the Gospels, provides the model of perfect gentleness.  
 
Jesus is the lamb. He is the good shepherd. With lepers (Mark 1:40-42), with sinners (John 8:3-11), with children (Mark 10:13-16) and without judgment, He gently welcomes, embraces, heals, and restores all who have faith in Him.  
 
“Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”  
Isaiah 40:11
 
Jesus is the picture of gentleness. His humility, self-lessness, kindness towards others is a direct result of His life being devoted to the Father’s will. Jesus had no agenda apart from God. Far from living for self, Jesus lived to serve and to be a model for us all on how to experience total freedom, by serving others within God’s will.  
 
What a warring dictator, a road-rageous driver, a child mid-temper tantrum, and myself on Saturday morning all have in common is that we are/were hell bent on doing or getting what we want or think we need, regardless of who we hurt in the process. Each example of aggressiveness shows a clear and overwhelming ME over we. Only when we embrace our nothingness, follow Jesus’s lead and trade in our insignificant plans, desires, and selfish ambitions for the perfect plan God has for us, will we be set free from the curse of self.