Real Power for Real Good

The difference between fighting for power and embodying Power

Presently, the rulers of the world are making people around the globe nervous. Many vulnerable people feel like chalk on a field—nothing more than to be walked on so someone else can play their games.

Over my long life, I have seen scores of famous and infamous political leaders come and go. It seems like the leaders who fight the hardest for power, who are willing to do whatever it takes, use it in the least godly ways. These leaders make promises they can’t keep and often use fear tactics to manipulate the marginalized, the middle class, and even our elites. Each leader, party and nation has its own interests, and they conflict with each other, giving rise to cycles of war, conflict, and subterfuge.

A Power That Lasts

Wisdom is right:

Hopes placed in mortals die with them; all the promise of their power comes to nothing.

Proverbs 11:7

Daniel made this point to one of history’s most powerful men, Nebuchadnezzar:

The God of heaven will set up a kingdom…not by human hands…that will never be destroyed…it will crush all [other] kingdoms and bring them to an end, but [God’s kingdom] will endure forever.

Daniel 2:44, 45

Daniel made his prophecy 2,500 years ago. Jesus came along 500 years later with a similar message: The Kingdom of God—its righteousness, peace, joy, and its saving, healing, and delivering power—is at hand (Romans 14:17)!

The problem is that despite this incredible power, billions still remain unsaved, hurting, or oppressed. It seems to me that the powers of the world, and the weapons they use to enforce their power, have only gotten worse. Judging by the news, God’s kingdom is being regularly defeated while the principalities and powers of the world are in assent.

How, then, are we to embody the restorative Power of the Kingdom in our time and place?

We can do this by stepping confidently into the true kingdom-story. From that story, we find security that frees us to be agents of change-toward-the-good in whatever our sphere of influence.

There are 2.4 billion Christians in the world. Just this second, millions of them are working in alignment with God’s kingdom for healing, justice, and peace, doing little acts of kindness in their place of work, their neighborhood, their school, their family. In the quiet places, the routine places, people in every aspect of human endeavor are inspired by godly leaders like Mother Teresa, Bryon Stevenson, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Harriet Tubman. These people are just a few representatives of the saintly who don’t seek power for themselves, but who engage with Divine Power for the healing of our world.

These humans are the bearers of God’s victory. They are models of servant leadership. They are the ones bearing fruit that will remain. They give me hope. They inspire me. They make God smile.

To riff on the Proverb:

Hopes placed in God lead to life;

all the promises of His power are fulfilled.

The biblical narrative of the inbreaking kingdom of God, and those who exemplify its goodness, provide an important perspective for me. They keep me grounded in hope, though a little sadness always remains. Why? Because in the meantime, there is still injustice, ongoing racism, slavery and trafficking, poverty, and all other manner of healable human suffering.

This I know for sure: The kingdom of God will one day defeat all the pseudo-powers, every pretend ruler, and each temporary nation-state that fights for its own national interests above all else. In our political, social, business, and even church affairs, we fight for tiny bits of power, but instead, we can choose to engage with the Power that invites us to trust Him to do good, to heal the world according to His vision and values, on His terms.