Power is everywhere. There is political power, there is military power, there is economic power. There is also social power as the ability to shape behavior or norms. And then there is knowledge power, technological power and, of course, physical power. In each case power means an ability to make decisions that affect others, an ability to act or control resources, wealth, people or even nations.
There is also spiritual power, or moral power, power rooted in ethics and giving one moral authority for non-violent resistance or spiritual leadership. History has seen stellar examples for this kind of authority, in which the individual follows his/her conscience and highest sense of right, regardless – quite a few times changing the course of history.
We are used to navigating powers, to hold on to them, to avoid them, to fly under their radar and make them our own in different way. Our lives are dealing with a variety of powers every day.
A very different and revolutionary way to look as power has been around for thousands of years. In this perspective God not only has more power than all political power, military power, economic power or social power combined. In this view God is the only power.
In the New Testament Jesus is recorded as taking a radical stand for the onliness of God as power, as good. “ And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10: 18)
In front of the powerful onliness of Good everything pales by comparison. God is the only power. Money or resources, control of capital, land, energy, food or technology have no real power. Institutions that define rules or legitimize actions have no real power. God is the only power. Narratives that shape people’s beliefs, stories fabricated and lies told have no real power. God is the only power. Violence and the threat of power, coercing individuals into compliance have no real power. God is the only power. Algorithms, people who design infrastructure, surveillance systems or communication platforms have no ultimate power. God is the only power.
It is heartening and incredibly encouraging to see that individuals who serve this one and only power, God, have resisted and endured hardships and persecution, can act independently, live without the approval of others and tell the truth. They are training the ability to refuse what does not reflect the one and only power there is, God. They serve the highest power – not just a higher power. They look right through the fabric of lies that that there is no alternative to power, no alternative to military or political power, no alternative to economic or social power.
God is the only power and we are empowered by this supreme power to be who we are and are meant to be. With God we are not only a majority, but a monopoly. We are less afraid of someone nor are we tempted to please someone in power. Fjodor Dostoevsky wrote that “power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up.” He is hinting at God, Good, as the only power and as our power being linked to humility and compassion.
“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.” (I Chron. 29:11)
If you read the word “Lord” in our day and age, you might think “Love” or “Life” or “Spirit”, the essence of God, the universal fabric of being. Good. From this we can see that power is everywhere, because God is everywhere. Power is with everything expressing Good. It is with all of, however powerless or small or insignificant we might feel. Is it a stretch to say that all have power? No, every single one of us is on eye level with God and therefore has power.
How is God as the only power expressed in our experience? We have power, so where is it?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead, anthropologist
“Is not a man metaphysically and mathematically number one, a unit, and therefore whole number, governed and protected by his divine Principle, God? You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you will find that one is as important a factor as duodecillions in being and doing right, and thus demonstrating deific Principle. Who lives in good, lives also in God, — lives in all Life, through all space. His is an individual kingdom, his diadem a crown of crowns.”
― Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist
