Word of Wisdom: Power

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton

We humans are fascinated by power, in all its varied forms.

Much of the media industry is built around our seemingly insatiable appetite for gossiping about and gawking at the holders of political, financial, and celebrity power in society. Even aside from our fixation on the powers that be, it seems to pop up in our everyday lives: horsepower, hydropower, purchasing power, power outages, power plays, the power of sight, etc.

It might seem as though we are powerless to escape power’s pervasiveness in our day-to-day existence.

That said, what we typically mean when assessing or thinking critically about “power” is a title, office, or position that bestows some capacity for influence at the mild end of the spectrum, progressing in severity to control, coercion, domination, all the way to subjugation and elimination at its most tyrannical.

And that risk of an “abuse of power” is why a “balance of power” internationally and a “separation of powers” domestically has been central to political philosophy—for the last few centuries, at least.

Of course, abuses are committed by human beings, and therefore much study throughout history has focused not just on the interplay between humans and power, but the type of human that ought to be entrusted with power. A maxim attributed to Plato posits that “only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it”.

Not everyone would agree with this sentiment (Nietzsche’s “will to power” has many adherents, after all), yet its essence clearly has an appeal. Indeed, Hollywood produced an Academy Award-winning blockbuster embodying it. In the film Gladiator, the dying emperor Marcus Aurelius bypasses his ambitious son and transfers power to his general, Maximus, who, when asked if he will accept it, replies: “With all my heart, no”.

“That is why it must be you,” dramatically retorts the Stoic Caesar.

Be that as it may, history is full of individuals who entered power with noble intentions, yet exited in disgrace, having failed to remain uncorrupted. For every Hitler, Stalin, Amin, or Pol Pot throughout the ages, there have been untold numbers of leaders who ascended into influence with integrity, yet could not retain an unblemished (and unviolent) record—be they presidents or potentates, middle managers or ministers.

Even biblical history is full of Sauls, Solomons, and Asas whose integrity and faith could not withstand the seemingly corrosive properties of power. Why is it so? Why is this thing—so universal and universally desired—often contrary to flourishing and well-being?

Let’s look to the word itself.

While common understanding and usage of our English word power would include concepts like “force”, “strength”, “mastery”, “lordship”, “legal authority”, the term itself has a rather simple and elegant meaning. Derived from the Old French povoir, originating in the Latin potere, it means “to be able”. Spanish speakers will recognize the same root as the source of the verb poder: also “to be able”.

Power, in its essence, is simply “ability”. It is the ability to do a thing—whether standing up from your chair or overthrowing a government. Viewed this way, every human being has power (ability), whatever the limitations or scope.

This helps our assessment of the “tendency to corrupt”. Lord Acton’s axiom addressed the movement away from virtue and toward vice by a leader in authority—increased authority naturally resulting in less constraints on vice and less need of virtue. The ability to do “bad”, in other words, coupled with decreased incentive to do what is “good”.

In such a scenario, natural processes will begin to take over. Just as an unused muscle will atrophy, or an old, unlubricated hinge will rust, the power—the ability—to choose virtue (to do what is wise, what is generous, what is forgiving, what is kind) will wither as its usage wanes.

What is left, and what are then put into use, are the vices: greed, lust, cruelty, self-importance, self-indulgence. In other words, an atrophied, rusted—we might say corrupted—heart.

This could be a source of concern for us as we progress through midlife leadership, increasing in responsibility and hence influence. Is a corrupted tendency toward vice, an apathy toward virtuous and ethical actions, our lot as a human leader?

Thankfully not—when we live like a son of the One from whom all power and ability flows.

When we live as a son of the Father of all life, we walk with him continually—and begin to take on his attributes. We grow into (and not away from) the virtues of his Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, wisdom, understanding, self-control. These transcendent qualities exist, and increase, even despite decreased “needfulness” of our ability to exercise them.

But how to sustain this walk as authority, assets, and accolades increasingly assail our ability to bear these fruits? For that we must look to the Son.

Though possessing the primordial power of the One, in whom and through whom all was created, he walked this same earth, clothed in the same humanity, yet not exercising any ability that didn’t flow from the Father. Moment by moment, day by day. Watching the Father, exercising no power on his own authority, but only in accord with what the Father was doing. And always giving out of that inheritance invested in him.

Indeed, that may be the simplest summation of this matter of power: holy power gives, while human power takes.

The ancients likened it to water: “living water” being the substance that moves, either falling from the sky or flowing from a spring, always emanating outward and bringing flourishing and fruitfulness to any soil it touches. “Dead water”, in contrast, was collected, taken, stored, hoarded for personal use in jars or cisterns, and in that stagnant, anxious hoarding susceptible to contamination and adulteration.

Flowing, loving, generously given and selflessly shared power is the living water of sonship—and perhaps the antidote to the grasping, taking, hoarding of ability that corrupts and enslaves. The Kingdom of God, after all, sits at the source of a river, not the center of a moat.

Oooh, that’s good. As the youths say these days, “it’s giving”. May it be so.

“But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me’.” Luke 8:46