This week, we continue with the third beatitude found in Matthew 5:5:
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

“Meek” isn’t a word we hear much these days. And when we do, it often carries a negative tone. It sounds soft, timid—like how you might describe a mouse or someone who struggles to speak up for themselves. In the words of our eighth graders, you might hear someone say meek is “low key beta.”

So why does Jesus declare that the meek will inherit the earth—a reward we typically associate with power, ambition, influence, or assertiveness? How can meekness lead to something as vast and substantial as the earth itself?

To understand this beatitude, we need to redefine our assumptions. Meekness is not weakness. It isn’t being a pushover or avoiding conflict out of fear. True meekness is strength under control. It’s the ability to put others ahead of yourself—not because you lack confidence, but because you possess the kind of inner strength that doesn’t need to dominate.

Jesus isn’t praising passivity. He’s lifting up a way of being that values humility, gentleness, and self-restraint in a world that constantly pushes for self-promotion. The meek are those who live with others in mind. They don’t insist on their own way at every turn, and they don’t see life as a competition where only the loudest or strongest win.

When we live with ourselves at the center, our world shrinks to the size of one. But when we learn to see others, to care, to yield when appropriate, our world expands. We become connected, open, generous—and that’s the kind of life that truly inherits the earth.

Perhaps Jesus is inviting us to consider that we’re short- changing ourselves when we make everything about us. Real blessing, He suggests, comes when we let go of control, embrace humility, and trust that the way of gentleness leads to greater things.

So ask yourself: Where might meekness be more powerful than pride this week? And what might God want to give you—not by grabbing hold, but by letting go?