Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit

Frank Sinatra's song, "I Did It My Way",
Struck a responsive chord with this world's men,
For it boosted their pride, as if to say,
"Who needs God? I can cope with so-called sin!"
God knows this evil world leads us astray,
That each by nature will behave amiss;
A man's self-pride crowds God's wise aid away,
Preventing its leading to righteousness!
Yet the poor in spirit depend on God
To avoid the wrong and lead to the right;
In crisis they seek His pathway to trod,
And always hunt His will to walk in light!
Wiser lyrics are, "I Did It God's Way",
If in His guidance you desire to stay!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)

The first Beatitude, or righteous character trait, is to be "poor in spirit", and strange it must have sounded in the ears of those Jews privileged to be at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. This, like all the other characteristics that the Savior advocated during His 3-year ministry for those who seek to follow Him, ran counter to what their culture, much less our culture today, held in high esteem. Those persons who were opposite in character, the "rich in spirit", were the most successful; they were strong-willed, aggressive, ambitious, and self-seeking; they were looked up to by less-aggressive folk as leaders and most successful. They were the type of men that fathers held before their children as worthy of emulation. But here was Jesus, their long-expected Messiah, teaching the exact opposite that was expected of the Leader who was prophesized to come and deliver Israel from subjugation to the Romans, restore David's kingdom, and rule from King David's throne. Furthermore, He mentioned a "Kingdom of Heaven" instead of Kingdom of Israel, which was an enigma to them. He surprised them, to say the least, and His counter-cultural preaching never was understood by the majority of Jews, which is why He died on the cross (and was resurrected).

What is being "poor in spirit"? These are people normally considered "losers" and "nerds". They are meek, gentle, unassuming, non-aggressive, unambitious, deferential, quiet, apologetic---the opposite of that character portrayed by Frank Sinatra in "I Did It My Way". They are less likely to do anything "their way", because they have no definitive way of doing anything. They wouldn't stand out in a crowd; they are not likely to be at the head of any line. In fact, they are more likely to seek God's will for their lives than are the more prideful, aggressive people who are sure of themselves. Jesus' first remark to a crowd can be paraphrased as, "Happy are those who are not self-proud and aggressive, for they are more likely to be admitted to heaven when they die."

Am I echoing the words of Jesus for your life? You bet I am! You should practice meekness, deference, humility, being 'lost' in the crowd, politeness, non-ambitious, etc. When Mr. Sinatra's song came out, for a while it was my favorite, until I realized I was full of pride for living my life in a different manner from other people. Since I had been fortunate to have a mother that took me to church regularly, and had become a Christian at age 9, the Holy Spirit inside me began to point out to me that God would not approve or applaud one of His children who took pride in living life as he willed it to be lived. I fear that that song has strengthened some non-believers in their mistaken goal for their own future.