“Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.” (NKJV)

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 Today we study the third step in finding happiness, and like the second step, it is requires some reflection to fully understand it.  Jesus says that the meek are happy people and that they will inherit the earth.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t naturally associate meekness with happiness.  Whenever I hear the work meek I think of someone with a wedgie personality, who allows other people to run all over them.  You know the type I’m speaking of, emotional doormats.  I’ve never looked at a person like that and thought they were happy.

 Do you think Jesus is saying the third step toward happiness is to allow other people to push you around, to be a big fat zero in life?  I don’t.  But that is one definition of meekness.

 If you listen to talk radio, watch daytime TV or stayed awake during your psych 101 class in college, you’ve probably heard the term passive-aggressive.  This person feigns cooperation, but exhibits behavior that undermines their verbal commitments.  Their behavior is destructive and will unravel a family or other social organization if they aren’t stopped. Meek people aren’t passive-aggressive, they’re just passive.  They are spineless jellyfish who acquiesce to any demand or request.  They lie down and play dead at the first sign of disagreement or conflict.  Their behavior says, your rights are important, mine are not—do whatever you wish to me.   The opposite of passive is aggressive.  These people are charging bulls who demand that the world cater to them.  Their behavior says, “Give in to me because my rights are important and yours are not!”

 The passive person is meek.  The aggressive person is arrogant.  The first step to happiness is to be poor in spirit, therefore, we know that God’s will isn’t for us to be arrogant, but is He telling us to be passive in this verse?

 
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