The pros and cons of power are common subjects. The issues usually focus around how power is generated, where it comes from, or how it’s used. This photo of the Diablo high tension power lines silhouetted against a sunset sky will soon be history. The worldwide controversy over the safety and environmental concerns of nuclear power affects our own backyard. Diablo is slated to be shut down in 2024-2025. It is the last nuclear power plant in California although 99 others still exist in the US. I guess Diablo will be the lost sheep.
We eat power bars, check out the horsepower of our automobiles, and are impressed by the promised advertised power of everything we buy from foods to soaps. We talk about powerful ideas, powerful sermons, and potent perfumes. Power is a good thing. Right? I remember a lecture given at the Diablo Visitors Center before it opened where we were told we would always need more power. Indeed, Diablo has provided electrical power for 1.7 million homes since 1985. However, its replacement and environmental issues remain a challenge.
Jesus promises spiritual power. The disciples were promised power after the Holy Spirit had come upon them for the purpose of being witnesses to the world (Acts 1:8). If we have enough faith, we can move mountains—Nothing will be impossible (Matthew 17:20). Jesus had the power to make wine from water, heal, raise the dead, perform miracles of every kind, and inspire and change hearts.
Power cannot do everything. It cannot make us love. It may force behavior and compliance, but it cannot force the spirit. Luke tells us that when Jesus returned to Galilee from being tempted in the wilderness, He returned in the “power of the spirit,” and the flame of Him went throughout the region (Luke 4:14). Zechariah records the angel passing along the words of the Lord to him: “Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit.”
I remember my uncle telling me that if my brains were dynamite, I couldn’t blow my nose. I got his point. I get Jesus’s point on how to move mountains. Ultimate power comes through trusting in Jesus and acting in His spirit of love. That won’t help in emptying the garbage can, but it is the way to exchange my selfish heart of stone for a caring heart of flesh. That’s the kind of power I long for and can afford. It’s freely given. I’m in.
—Larry Smith