Four types of power play a part in our lives, but the power that will transform you enters your ditch and is with you.
I’ve seen it all.
Through the eyes of my half-dead body, I watch them come, look, and then go.
Will no one stop to do what I cannot do for myself? I am alone, and no one wants to engage, connect, look upon my swollen face, and pierce my life with hope.
It’s a gift of power I need.
I need someone to cross the line and do what I cannot do for myself.
The disempowerment of abuseAbuse, in whatever form it comes, has a nasty way of taking the life out of you.
You are left feeling less than others. You’re small, weak, and insignificant. You get stripped of something of the gloriousness that you once were.
Abuse that harms doesn’t have to fit into the major categories of sexual abuse or violence. It could be a little well-aimed slight by a child in the schoolyard. A put down by a bully. A lack of basic essentials such as affirming touch and encouragement.
No one escapes the blows and cuts from living in a broken world. Unfortunately, many of our wounds can remain untreated or undertreated for our lifetime.
Many people come to this website because they pray into an internet search engine the words ‘God, I want to die.’. But I wonder what it would be like to pray, ‘God, I want to live fully.’
I don’t want to live a half-dead life. I want a life where I am fully alive, where wounds have been changed into scars. Abuse cuts and traumas have become beauty marks and toned muscle.
The harm now brings something of God’s life to others, and as we connect, we ‘mouth to mouth’ resuscitate those who robbers and thieves have violated.
What would it be like to be fully alive?
OverpoweredJesus tells a story about power.
“A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.
By chance a priest came down that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to that place, looked at him and passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
The next day when he departed, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, ‘Take care of him. I will repay you whatever else you spend when I return.’ Luke 10:30-35
(denarius, a coin worth about a day’s wage.)
In Jesus’ story, we find a man experiencing the effect of Power over. He had been assaulted, robbed, and left half dead. Thieves, robbers, bullies, and tyrants had stolen something of his glorious humanity. Perhaps a fellow human was the only way to restore something of power within.
If you were to look through the eyes of the dying man, what would you see?
What expressions of power would your heart engage with?
Perhaps it comes down to three questions.
Power with, power against, power withheld.
Four types of powerWhat does this dying man see?
Something happens in this man. The power within him begins to grow. Strength returns to his body and also to his soul.
Perhaps because he has experienced both the worst of power and the best, he now has a deeper awareness of humanity.
It is lovely to see someone grow in their internal power. They begin to see the lines of their unique shape. They see those who have used ‘power over’ badly. They see those who have ‘withheld power’ and leave them alone.
But then they begin to see those with them and want to continue to be with them. As a result, inner beauty and strength grow.
Something both glorious and good begins to grow within the soul. Its beauty and strength begins to transform the dangerous roads we travel on. Its love is unstoppable and dangerous, and it must have release.
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin
These four types of power play a part in all our lives. The power that will transform you, will enter your ditch and be with you.
It’s your eyes I want to see
Looking into mine
Got you live on my mind
All the time. Bruce Cockburn
Quotes to consider
Barry Pearman
Photo by Derick Daily on Unsplash
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