Without Power ...

Tuesday, June 7, 2016. There are some humans, who are quite power-hungry. Some are power-aware, others are power-driven and power-greedy. When you are in interaction with a wide range of people with responsibility, it is interesting to see who can have true collaboration, who is always checking out if someone could threaten his power or take away some of his influence.

Power is neither good or bad …

Power is an important part of human interaction. Power itself is neither good nor bad. Power means to be able to do things. In a human context it means that people either lead or own or are able to make decisions or influence decisions by their status or talents or gifts or possessions. The question is how power is used.

Often, in conflicts or difficulties we become aware how important power is. Many of us dream of the big brother, who can help, who can lead justice to win. Justice can be a matter of power. The distribution of resources is a question of power.

In modern democracies we have a distribution of power. We give some power to the executive of the state, some to the legislation (the parliament), some to the jurisdiction, some to the media, some to the owners of things, some to the companies, some to the employees. We need a balance of power, and when history moves on, this balance of power needs to be readjusted again and again.

Powerless …

It is very interesting that Jesus himself does not take any power during his lifetime. He is the “powerless” God. He is the son of the most high, who is given a lot of responsibility and the power to forgive sins, yet he does not have any power himself. Let us look into the 5th chapter of the gospel of John:

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (John 5, 19)

Jesus is completely dependent on his heavenly father. It is like a raw model for our faith, for our life, for our own power. We do not have any power. We are dependent on God, dependent on other people. Of course, we can make decisions - every human has some range where he or she can determine what she does and wants and says and thinks. But we are called to follow Jesus, to trust our heavenly father, to pray and to live in his love, his truth and his mercy. Powerless does not mean lost, but the father promised to be with us and take care. And he will! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts