Reverse Intimidation

Andre' Rene' Roussemoff weighed in at 240 pounds on his 12th birthday.

He suffered from what has been scientifically labeled as "acromegaly", a genetic disorder that hyper graduates growth. Andre'grew into his adult seven foot four inch frame, his weight fluctuating between 475 to 540 pounds upon arrival into his full manhood. He became the global wrestling icon, "Andre' the Giant" and was hyped as the "Babyfaced Monster".

Andre', simply put, was a massive human being. His opponents were dwarfed in comparison to his physical huge-ness. Once the bell rung, the beat down was on as the Giant took over!

Intimidation can be packaged in all kinds of ways. Imposing oneself upon the weakness, inadequacy or easily over-matched is happening right now in a marriage somewhere. A brow beating husband bullies his wife. An over the top Mom is forcing her will and interests upon a seemingly unmotivated young child. In the workplace today, a manager strong arms a subordinate team member with body language sending the message; "Remember who is in charge here...". A Shift Supervisor will curse in disgust, shaming the laborer whose mistake has just been magnified 100 times beyond necessary. If you have ever raised your voice, you know the intent of your volume adjustment. Get your point across forcefully and with prowess. Put the intimidation factor in play and you are in control.

It feels pretty good unless you are the one being intimidated and controlled!

The God of the Bible does not use intimidation as an attention grabber. He has a greater, more convincing approach; gentleness. Jesus said of Himself that He was 'gentle', which made Him approachable, (Matthew 11:28-29). God is NOT bombastic. He is majestic, mighty, awesome and holy, yet He appeals to you and I by entreating us with His gentleness. The term itself does not emasculate the God of the Bible into some sort of weak-willed Deity. In exercising His gentleness, we realize that He willingly constrains His justice to extend His mercy. In spite of knowing our inadequacies, shortcomings and full scale nastiness, the Heavenly Father chooses not to treat us as our sins deserve.

He has the power and the reasons to do so, but instead chooses to multiply His kindnesses to us.

"Gentleness" is one of the evidences of the Father's operation in your life, developing your character to align with His. Galatians 5:22-23 provides us with His list of spiritually induced character qualities and essentials that define those who bear His name; "Christian". When you are growing in gentleness;

You willingly wait rather than force your will on others,
You withhold judgment and prefer to extend mercy,
You voluntarily restrain yourself from playing the "Authority Card",
You consider God's gentleness with you before you say a word.

Andre' the Giant was known for being a gentle soul. He used his brut force peddling the drama of professional wrestling, but beyond that, was not known as an intimidator. Real giants could use an Andre' sized dose of gentleness as described in Galatians 5:22-23.

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