"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5 KJV

What did Jesus mean when he said meek? From my experience, ministers typically make a distinction between "meekness" and "cowardice." I must agree. First of all, meekness does not necessarily refer to the way that we present ourselves to our neighbors. Perhaps Jesus was referring to our walk with God. Perhaps it is those who walk meekly before their God rather than humanity who will inherit the earth. If this beatitude is read in this way, it takes on a poetic tone that often recurs in the Bible. As the gospel message indicates, you must first give yourself up to God in order to find yourself. Here too, we must first learn to walk humbly before our God before we can inherit the world. In order to gain everything, we must give up trying to gain everything through out own power.

What does someone who walks humbly before God look like? As Jesus states in Matthew 22, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." KJV. The greatest commandment is love the Lord our God; the lesser commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Why is the command to love your neighbor as yourself lesser than the commandment to love the Lord our God? Certainly God is much more important than any individual. Perhaps we might also consider the idea that a follower of God must first love God before he or she can love their neighbors. One who loves the Lord our God, loves the rest of God's people. Perhaps this is why--as Matthew 25:40 indicates--whatever we do unto the least of God's children we do unto God. The fruit of our love for God is love for our fellow human beings. Thus, perhaps one who walks humbly before the Lord, walks humbly before the rest of humanity as well. The fruit of our humble spirit before God, manifests itself in our humility before the rest of creation as well.

If anybody reads this an is a Christian, he or she will probably think to themselves well duh. I fear, however, that we know these words but we don't know how to implement these words. Just look at the world that we have created. Do we walk humbly before our God? We live in an age of material and technological abundance. The typical apologetic I hear for our lives is that we can make enough for everyone. If we invent more efficient machines, we can decrease the time of production and increase what is produced. We can make it possible for everyone to overindulge in this world. I keep hearing this, but I cannot help but shake the suspicion that our abundance rests upon the misery of others.

A family member of mine recently lauded an online college for its low tuition. As an online instructor, my heart sank a bit. How do you think they got that low tuition? They are able to charge so little because online adjuncts are paid very little. They are taking the labor of their instructors and unfairly compensating them for their work. They are able to do so because those instructors are desperate for money to survive. Similarly, perhaps Walmart is able to get those low, low prices because someone out there is not getting paid fairly for his or her work. Every time customers pat themselves on their backs for getting a great deal, a sweat shop worker sheds a tear. Most Americans believed that we got rid of slavery in 1865, and wage labor has in fact taken over in most of North America. Despite this, we should recognize that various forms of unfree labor exist around the world. Statistics remain a bit sketchy because most of those imprison and exploit their workers try to keep it a secret, but my impression is that there are at least as many unfree laborers in the world today as there were in 1865.

Unlike the nineteenth century, however, most churches do not engage in consumer boycotts in order to combat unfair labor practices. In the antebellum US, many if not most abolitionists became abolitionists because of their Christian devotion. Most of those abolitionists refused to buy cotton made with slave labor because they recognized that doing so would only encourage the growth of slavery. Buying cloth made with slave labor would only encourage the slaveholder, and thus they believed that buying slave made produce would make them just as bad as those who whipped the slaves. Where are the Christians today who engage in consumer protests? Does buying clothes made by sweat shop workers make us just as guilty as those who abuse the workers directly? Is blissful ignorance the same thing as blessed innocence?

I think you can see at this point where I am headed. We Americans have lusted after high living for quite some time now. In Texas--so the saying indicates--everything is bigger and thus better. The Texans' slogan could be applied to most American Christians today. We may talk about walking humbly, but then Monday through Saturday we lust after the high life. Unlike our nineteenth-century ancestors, I have never heard an American Christian minister say much about American over consumption our duty to walk humbly before our God. What is the fruit of our desire for big things? We are willing to sacrifice our neighbor for our wants. Our rebellion against God manifests itself in our unneighborly attitude.

The past few months we have been told to buy, buy, and then buy some more. I have never heard any ministers suggest that perhaps this is not a good thing. By promoting consumption, are we saving Americans or saving the economy? By promoting consumption, are we saving greed and lust? Perhaps I am wrong and the apologists for American consumerism are correct. Perhaps we can enjoy overabundance and spread it around the world. Perhaps the key is that we simply need to develop more efficient technologies. I'm worried, however, that we no longer thoughtfully consider that the way we spend our money may change whether we treat our neighbors as we would like to be treated. I'm worried that we do not reflect upon the possibility that our lust for overindulgence may bear bad fruit. It at least seems like a conversation worth having in this day and age when so many people in this recession are begging to realize the true fruits of over consumption: greed and self-centeredness.