POWER—this is the word of the weekend for me. Over the past few years, my life has been a wrestling with this word. It has been one of those connoting words that twists itself into my sternum and breaks the rhythms of my breathing. It has been one of the F words in my vocabulary. A word to scorn. A word to deny. A word to kill. In my history, it has been a word of abuse, control, manipulation, and a “keeping of people in their places”.
But this past weekend, I came to understand power as a “nice” word in my ministry. And here is my dilemma: What do I do with a “bad” word turned “good”? What the heck do I do with a word that feels unfamiliar and foreign to my experience? What was God thinking when He brought me into this vocation?
As I was reflecting on this dilemma, the words of 2 Corinthians chapter 1 rose up out of the fog. “Therefore, it is by God’s mercy that we engage in this ministry . . . “ Okay . . . I get it! The use of “good” power is one of those adaptive challenges facing me in my ministry. Frankly, I don’t know what to do with power, but God does. This is my salvation. This is walking in mercy. This is walking in grace.
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