Teachers are all around us. Suffice it to say that everybody we meet can be one of our teachers. I'm not exaggerating, truly, I'm not. When we get to a point of believing no one can teach us, especially certain people we associate with every day, then we've divested ourselves of a wealth of knowledge. The wealth- not necessarily being the number of things we learn from another person, but the content of what we learn. You could learn one thing from one person that stays with you your entire life, and you could learn hundreds of things from another and only remember a few of those things, or sadly none. Not all we learn in our lives is retained indefinitely. I can't begin to number the things I've learned only to go on to forget them.
In truth we are all teachers, we may not all have educational degrees labeling us as teachers, but we are teachers whenever we give an account of our lives to another and they gain knowledge from what we've said. Teaching is offering knowledge to another and their accepting that knowledge.
We are often taught without the intent of learning, and we often teach without the intent of doing so. Others teach us all the time without a single thought that they teachings us. We learn many life lessons through others actions, we've been taught by them unknowingly.
There are so many situations we can learn from, but choose not to. We repeat actions we despise in ourselves time and again, simply not learning to stop doing so. Repetitive behavior can be good or bad. While some repetitive actions are wonderful to do and encouraged. Other repetitive actions are not something we enjoy and would never encourage.
Have you ever found yourself responding to something in a negative way and instantly despised the fact you responding that way? I have, over and over, and over again. You know the syndrome name for this could be 'Getting Your Buttons Pushed.' I get my buttons pushed constantly and my knee jerk reaction is to blame the button pusher, not my buttons. You read that right. Just because we have buttons doesn't mean we should have all the buttons we possess, right? I'm not saying the button pushers aren't guilty of using the buttons they've found knowing they'll receive a certain reactions when they do, it happens all the time. I've done it, you've done it, others do it too. We know instantly when something leaves our mouths that it will be received unfavorably, yet out it goes anyway. Our target button was sighted and shot at, hit dead center, the wound made when that button was depressed by us.
Not all button pushing is deliberate. Some truly believe they never intentionally push a button to get others to react in certain ways. Some truly believe they don't intend to hurt others with their responses, even though they do so over and over again. They don't learn, don't want to learn and believe they have nothing to learn because they are innocent in their own behavior- not being able to control how another interprets their meaning, which is never meant to wound deliberately. The blind button pushers, they really do exist.
So how does a person who gets their buttons pushed constantly handle the situation? Or rather how should they handle it, or again still rather - what is one possible solution for this endless cycle of vicious button pushing? Maybe it's removing the buttons in ourselves, maybe it's learning from the button pusher in a way they never intend or expect- if they even think about it at all, remember some are blind to their button pushing.
Remember at the beginning of this we were talking about teaching? We can be taught, we can learn, we should learn, and maybe we are supposed to do more learning than we ever believed. Maybe our teachers are disguised as button pushers who we would least expect to be learning from simply because they are not intentionally trying to teach us a darn thing. Oblivious teachers, they exist.
Unfortunately we may believe that the button pushers must be the ones to change, not the ones possessing the buttons and is it possible we rid ourselves of a chance to grow in grace and meekness, in Spirit, when we think this way?
When Jesus taught we should turn the other cheek, He was teaching the principle behind the idea of altering our buttons, not expecting the button pusher to change. Jesus was teaching that our knee jerk responses during an unloving, unprovoked, undeserved antagonism that caused the response- are not the right responses we should be having in that situation. Turn the other cheek… do not respond as expected. The broken button situation must be encouraged in us all. Push at that button all you want button pusher- it's broken! That broken button will NOT give the response that is normally received. Jesus can and will break those buttons in us through the Holy Spirit!
Remember, Jesus did NOT pray for the Father to remove us from this evil world, but for us to be kept from evil. We live in an evil world with Satan all around us trying to get us and keep us in any way possible. And Jesus wants us to continue to live in this world until He returns, and yet, He wants us to be kept from the evil. Kept from evil. He wants the Father in heaven to keep us from evil as we live surrounded by evil. Jesus wants us to turn the other cheek, to not give evil for evil but rather love for evil. Jesus wants us to have those buttons which provoke evil for evil in us - removed, to no longer function, to be broken irreparably.
Those in our lives- strangers, acquaintances, service providers, casual friends, co-workers, friends, loved ones, relatives- ALL the people in our lives in any capacity at all have the ability to provoke us to negative reactions, unloving reactions - and they'll more than likely do this completely unintentionally the majority of time. Of course we know who doesn't unintentionally want to cause us the most angst possible and it's a spirit being, not a human, it's Satan taking the opportunity to stir up evil wherever he can. He doesn't have to use an evil person to provoke evil- all he has to do is get us to perceive evil and react in kind to that perceived evil. He loves to alter our perceptions towards his evil ends and never misses an opportunity to try and do so.
Jesus will help us, He promises to help us, we are to be kept from evil. We must believe that this will happen, is happening in us!
We must turn the other cheek- the buttons must be broken. We can't control any button pusher out there, not a single one in any form they take, but we can recognize the undesirable buttons we have and acknowledge when they are pushed and whether or not they are pushed and get a response of love or evil. We need to seek forgiveness when our responses are of the evil bent, the unloving bent.
We can't simply call our unloving response to our evil button pushed reactions natural responses as some would have us do. We can't justify our responses because a button pusher is repetitively pushing buttons. They push and in our perception (and possibly the perception of others if it is viewed by them) they are the bad guys, but that doesn't matter! Our response to them matters! Yes, when that blow to the other cheek comes it hurts and it hurts bad! But the pain we feel as we are inflicted with the blows and take them without giving back in kind is truly a spirit led action, one we definitely do not naturally possess. Hence, we are told it's natural to be offended and react badly when treated badly. The natural isn't of the Spirit. The flesh is not of the Spirit.
And BOY does my flesh want to prevail! No sooner had I written all the above than my buttons were pushed more than once in less than a ten minute span of time! Those buttons are awful and I need to pray, pray, pray for the Spirit to work in me to rid me of my unloving responses, to help me to turn the other cheek! This is my prayer, my hope that in all situations that warrant cheek turning that the Spirit in me does so, my flesh is so incredibly weak! God forgive me!
Meekness 'It's enduring injury with patience and without resentment. The Holy Spirit enables us to produce meekness a necessary attitude for understanding God's word. (Bible Tools. org)
'As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.' (Tozer)
Blessed are the Meek - Matthew 5:5
Meekness NOT being cowardly but ENDURING INJURY (all kinds, especially injury to our pride which is a constant happening) with PATIENCE and WITHOUT RESENTMENT- true, true meekness that Jesus was a perfect example of!
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