Moderation and Meekness: Just What We Need

Christians need leaders who are moderate and meek.

Saying that sounds like advocacy for impotence,  but Moses, the meekest man who ever lived, was no wimp. Moderation is a virtue and it ought to go without saying that it is good to be good. Extremism in defense of liberty is tyranny with good rhetoric, moderation in pursuit of virtue prevents becoming so straight you lean a bit.

A moderate man or woman knows what to do, how much to do it, and gets the job done. He does not draw undue attention to self or do more than most be done. The moderate man knows that excess is as dangerous as defect: liberty can  become libertine, law legalism. The moderate man resists radicalism, even in love, because he knows that radicalism destroys love.

No mother should love her children absolutely: such worship becomes idolatry. What of God? We love Him with our whole being, but we love God as God. We do not love God as we love our dog, our pizza, or even our spouse. We love God as limited humans can. Human history teaches us that religious zealotry, confusing categories and virtues, has done as much harm as any other zealot.

The moderate man will die for his nation when patriotism bids, but do nothing for jingoism. The moderate man faces the lions cheerfully, because prudence demands living for eternity and not for the moment, but will do nothing out of zealous pride. The moderate man knows the time for speaking, silence, and action.

The moderate man is meek, because he knows the limits of his power and his knowledge. We think we are right or we would change our mind, but know we might be wrong and so we do as little harm as we can. We are careful and know that carefulness takes more courage than swashbuckling folly. Meekness is the tribute power pays to human ignorance.

Crying “to hell with it” as a rebel is easier than the quiet, deliberate action of a Washington, but the rebel ends the tyrant while the meek man ends the father of his country. The meek man goes home when the task is done, the radical stays long enough to set up his own guillotine. The meek will inherit the earth, because the radicals will consume themselves before His coming.

Fly from a youth group that demands total commitment. Give instead only careful and moderate assent. Give yourself to God, but know that what you call God is often a mixture of your vanity with the real God of the Bible. Distrust the self-promoter, the glib, the radical.Walk instead the courageous pathway of the careful.

Prudence in the face of evil is the first step to holiness.

I vote as much as possible for those who share my values, but would implement those values with care. I dread the man who would sweep away the past in the name of the future. I loath the experimental, the radical, the immoderate, and the fool who says in his heart there is not middle way to God.

Truth is absolute, but my knowledge is incomplete and so I will walk with care toward the light as God gives me the ability to see the light.

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