The Illusion of Power

The powerful of the world insist upon themselves. Every act, every move, every command is a way of showing the world just how important and indispensable they are. But what is power really? Where does it come from? Where does it go? One day a person is a big important CEO of a company, the next they are unemployed and destitute. A tyrant can go from the height of power to imprisonment and even death in but a day. 

People give power to religious leaders, to political leaders, to the famous, the rich and even to themselves. But just as quickly as they have given it to one person or group, they give it to another. People have been known to will themselves into tyranny. A man revels in the power they have over another person, but in the end, they are simply slaves themselves, to their desires, to their sins. Great power affords one the opportunity to engage in all sorts of behaviors that will, in the long one, leave one enslaved or even worse. Gluttony, lust, vengeance, these deadly sins are only really available to people who have some kind of power: monetary, political, whatever. In the end the person who is susceptible to these sins becomes enslaved by them and that slavery often ends in death. 

Power is just a shadow on the wall. It passes from one to another depending on the opinions and attitudes of some group of people. And they move back and forth, vacillating like the wind. Power insists on itself, and yet ultimately it is empty. It fails on it's promises. Those who seek it and revel in it are ultimately controlled by it. The devil is the ultimate liar, in the end he himself is a lie. A living, incarnated untruth. The power I am talking about here is coercive power. It is the power to control or destroy. But I think there is a power that endures, that matters, that lasts, and that is ours to really have. That is the power of love, of vulnerability, of grace. Persuasive love, that matters. It matters because options can be given to someone whether they take them or not. The giving of those options is real and lasts, even if they are not taken. Making someone more free is something you have done and that is that. It cannot be taken away from you, it cannot be moved along. It creates, it does not destroy. And since it is other-seeking, since it is about other people, you are not dominated by it. Christ is Truth, and all He gives is real. But Christ does not insist upon Himself. He invites, He persuades, He loves, He never demands or commands. His only commandment is love, and love is a commandment that by it's very nature is not something that can control us. 1 Corinthians 13 seems relevant here. 

There is a power that passes away, and a power that endures. The devil is nothingness, a lie, that insists on it's very existence. It is oblivion made manifest, and it makes itself apparent everywhere. But it's very yelling and screaming, by it's very insistence, it betrays the fact that it knows it doesn't really exist at all, that it's life is a slow and cosmic suicide. The devil is the nothing that acts like it's everything. God is everything, but He refuses to insist upon Himself. He is love and creation made manifest, but He withdraws control so that His creation can live unto itself. By His very whispering, by His very giving over, He reveals that He is confident and sure of His own eternity. God is the Everything, that empties Himself completely.