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Matthew 5:5 — “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Meekness isn’t weakness.
I’ve had to remind myself of that a lot lately.
We live in a strange time to be a man.
Particularly a man trying to be present, trying to fight for something without being told the fighting itself is the problem.
The line between assertive and toxic has gotten so thin that most of us have stopped walking it altogether… we just stand still and hope nobody notices.
And then we get told or we feel we’re not man enough.
June is Men’s Mental Health Month, and I think about how many men I know who are carrying exactly this… the weight of feeling unwanted in their own homes, invisible to the person they chose, unsure whether to reach or retreat.
There’s a specific kind of grief to just slowly stop feeling seen by them.
So what do you do with that?
We need to develop a quiet strength that doesn’t demand to be recognized. A resolve that comes from within rather than from someone else’s validation.
I’ve started working out again this year to improve myself. Not to prove anything to anyone, but because the man I want to be deserves the effort regardless of who’s watching.
Meekness, the way Jesus meant it, isn’t about shrinking.
It’s about controlled strength.
Knowing your power and choosing, every day, not to weaponize it.
Staying soft without going hollow.
Continuing to love even when love feels unreturned.
That is one of the hardest things a man can do.
And nobody talks about it enough.
So if you’re reading this and you recognize the feeling… the invisibility, the confusion, the exhaustion of trying to be everything and still somehow not enough, know that you’re not alone in it.
Take care of your body.
Take care of your mind.
Find your way back to something that grounds you, whether that’s faith, community, the gym, the garden, whatever it is that reminds you who you are when nobody else is reminding you.
Do the small acts a man who refuses to disappear has to do.
And always remember that meekness is not weakness.
