I
wrote just days ago of the evils that issue from big players and small when
they are drunk with power. As Tolkien
wrote so well in The Lord of the Rings, power manifests in a size and scope
consistent with the grasp of the bearer, but it always devours the bearer as
surely as it seeks to devour its victims.
The only alternative to eventual death for all concerned is to surrender
the power to destruction – as Frodo did with the help of Sam and even
Gollum. It is actually true that – once
we decide to obey rather than defy God – He works all things together for good
as He promises in Romans 8:28. Not
always right away, but one way or another.
Think
of Israel. How drunk with power must
Secretary of State John Kerry be to convene talks on Iran’s nuclear weapons
program, conclude an agreement, and exclude Israel? The avowed purpose of Iranian foreign policy
is the destruction of Israel first and the US thereafter. Does Kerry actually believe Israel is going
to say “Please and thank-you,” to the gathered might of the nations in these
talks designed to seal her fate without so much as a howdy-do? But, some would say, what can a nation of
seven million do if we throw them under the bus? The question should be, rather, how we will
fare if we let Kerry lead us in his ignorance and his arrogance. Israel is the only nation in the region
already having a nuclear arsenal, and the only nation standing to have never
lost a war. She is the only nation
banking on a promise from God Himself that He will never again tolerate injury
to His first-born. How drunk must we be
to not get that?
Of
course many will say it is blue-sky thinking to claim God has made – or will
keep – such a promise. But it is a fact of history that no nation on earth has
ever been resurrected after total destruction like that of Israel in the first
century. They have fought to victory in
five wars against overwhelming odds.
They have made the desert bloom despite the poverty in which they
arrived after World War II. If there is
a better explanation than God having their backs let someone share it. Or we could decide God actually spoke the
Bible – and the world – into existence with a particular plan and He is going
to have His way. We could become drunk
in His Spirit.
When
we are drunk – on anything – we tend to discard our inhibitions, our judgment,
and our ability to carry out our plans.
But when the intoxicant is power we tend to become full of conceit and
when it is God’s Spirit we tend to fill ourselves with humility. In His Spirit we tend to behave like He
does. That could mean engaging with
Israelis as well as Iranians instead of deciding Israel’s fate and breaking it
to them. It could mean reforming
healthcare along the lines of the Price Plan – advanced by Rep. Tom Price of
Georgia – which provides all of the relief and none of the coercion of
Obamacare. It could even mean little
things like observing the half century passed since the Kennedy assassination
with all living former presidents attending, not just the Democrat ones. (This is one of the crassest examples of
official pettiness, rudeness, and vindictiveness I have ever seen.) Being filled with God’s Spirit ultimately
leads us to do right instead of what we want.
The fruit is better and a whole lot longer lived.
Now
in my own city of Redding the local government has engaged in talks with the
McConnell Foundation – who leases land on the Sacramento Riverfront, which is
owned by the Kutros family – on the future development of that land. The owners have been excluded from the
talks. God has a few choice things to
say about people who disregard the rights of landowners. In Florence, Colorado, a school district is
persecuting a group of high school girls because they and their parents object
to a boy showering with them after the school board has made a policy
permitting it. God has something to say
about arrogant authorities harming His little ones. Officials in both cities appear drunk with
power. It might be Redding needs a
better plan for these talks. It might be
Florence needs to come alongside its families instead of its social
engineers. It could even be we all need
a whole new attitude about intoxication – are we after power or seeking the
Spirit of the living God?
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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