The Other Kind of Mat

Nobody wants to be a doormat.

Who could aspire to such depths? Weak. Passive. Feeble. These aren’t desirable personality traits.

This summer I’m using IF:Equip as my Bible study (join in; it’s free!). We’re slowing inching our way through the Beatitudes with accompanying passages. This week is a deep-dive on Matthew 5:5.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (ESV)

Nobody has ever accused me of being meek. (Though StrengthsFinder does argue that I have a Harmony strength. What??!) I’m opinionated and vocal. Without a strong leader to counter-balance me, I’ll run away with any project, committee or meeting I’m part of. So, these words of Jesus usually cause me to discount myself from being blessed or inheriting the earth. I don’t even want to be meek. But Jesus says the meek are blessed.

So shouldn’t I want to be?

Bianca Olthoff’s words this morning hiccuped my thinking. Watch the video here:

She describes perfectly the way I had previously understood (and felt about) being meek: as a doormat. Hence my disdain for it. Yet when reframed as being someone who will lay themselves down (John 15:13) so that another could enter the kingdom of God, I’m all in. 

I still have little desire to be a doormat.

But I know no greater honor than to be a welcome mat into God’s Kingdom.

Will you join me today in laying down our lives
so that another might cross the threshold into
God’s house?