Here is what we need to discover about power: it is both better and worse than we could imagine…It is the one swift stroke of the machete that opens a coconut for the honored guest. It is a source of refreshment, laughter, joy and life—and of more power. Remove power and you cut off life, the possibility of creating something new and better in this rich and recalcitrant world. Life is power.
Power is life. And flourishing power leads to flourishing life. Of course, like life itself, power is nothing—worse than nothing—without love. But love without power is less than it was meant to be. Love without the capacity to make something of the world, without the ability to respond to and make room for the beloved’s flourishing, is frustrated love.
…Yet it is the way of our world that the very thing that makes us fully human at our best is what most truly corrupts us at our worst. Power at its worst is the unmaker of humanity—breeding inhumanity in the hearts of those who wield power, denying and denouncing the humanity of the ones who suffer under power. This is the power exercised by the money lender, by the police who ignore or protect him, by the officials who would rather not confront him. This power ultimately will put everything around it to death rather than share abundant life with another.
–Andy Crouch, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (Downers Grove, IL., InterVarsity Press, 2013), pp. 24-25, quoted in last Sunday’s sermon by yours truly
@hillcountryinst Andy Crouch-discussing Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. How can we use power constructively and discipline ourselves to live as Image Bearers of the Living God.
1&7PM Sat, 2PM Sun, live streaming https://t.co/fNWWDpC71a, The Bridge 1120 AM-Central Texas pic.twitter.com/JnVwS8fius— Larry Linenschmidt (@LarryLinenschmi) March 11, 2023