Note: You may wish to refer to the Sentinel's January 5, 2009 article for background illumination.
Power is a natural part of life. The earth, wind, sun and rain all exert power to our great benefit. Love of personal power, however, breeds all manner of madness, sin and eventually, death.
Certain practices exist that can help offset the dangerous effects of power-lust, but none of us can at this point expect total immunity from these invisible puppet-masters pulling our strings. Constant vigilance is essential.
The antidote to money's poisoning influence is simple. Give. Simple, but not necessarily easy. What a thing to ask of someone!
"Say, I noticed you had some power that you could use to get just about any good or service imaginable. Now, why don't you voluntarily part with it?"
It's a wonder this ever happens! But when it does, a mental switch is flipped inside the givers. They are allowed to glimpse, if only momentarily, the things of deeper value than those which can be acquired with money. As power rushes out, the vacuum is necessarily filled with love for others. Because of this, giving can become an addiction. How wonderful!
Gratitude is worth mentioning here, for the recipient to be sure, but even more importantly on the part of the giver. When making a gift, one should be grateful for having sufficiently abundant resources and the proper disposition of spirit to be able to give.
The antidote to the power of seduction is monogamy. As with giving, monogamy allows for the replacment of a destructive desire by another even stronger desire that is fulfilling and good. The security of marriage creates the conditions in which physical needs can find satisfaction in a way that is ever-increasingly intimate and exciting. In other words, it just keeps getting better.
Compare this to the satisfaction levels of someone that is promiscuous. At best their experiences are hit or miss. At worst, they can be utterly destructive.
The antidote to the power of persuasion is knowing one's own heart. Once you know your heart - what you value and love consistently - you can guard it and not worry so much about what goes on around it. Then you can let yourself be persuaded in some things. That's not so bad. Someone that can never be swayed is not a rock of integrity, but a fearful monster.
Knowing and guarding our hearts can be done through prayer. This is much different than the misguided vision of prayer as presenting God with a honey-do list.
Instead, it's more along the lines of regularly (all the time, really, on some level) taking one's priorities and plans before God for review. Are they loving? Are they true? What did He say about it when experiencing something similar during his own sojourn in human flesh?
This, I believe, is the firm foundation referred to near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. With that firm foundation one can engage in lively debate, disagreement, and even trying on other points of view without jeopardizing integrity.
Lastly, the antidote to the power of physical force is accepting authority. As a man, I have the authority to protect my family and property with all the physical force of which I am capable. Accepting my limitations is an important part of this. If a threat to my family or community is larger, or more well-armed, than I can reasonably cope with; I will call for help from local or even state authorities.
Threats from abroad are under the authority of the national government to deal with, and those people standing up in service to do so, like the homeland guards, deserve our appreciation.
In the end though, no matter how safe our society, no matter how carefully we live our lives, we each face the impending crisis of death. By design, all of our individual efforts toward health and fitness, security and stability are ultimately futile.
Therefore, accepting the authority of the one who can give us eternal life under his protection is the only option that is truly viable for the long term. Only by pledging loyalty to King Jesus Christ of the Royal House of David, the Son of the Living God, can we be kept safe through the transition of death and forever in a life of peace, comfort, joy and love in his eternal Kingdom.
