Sadly, that innocent desire never seems to completely die away, and morphs into far more dangerous forms. Despite various efforts to overcome these urges, I confess to feeling a certain delight when team members rush off to do my bidding, or employees come to me for permission, or approval, or even disapproval. As I think about bosses I’ve worked for, just about all of them sought some form of power and control. (It also seems as though men tend to wield raw power, while women specialize in exercising control. Perhaps this is a figment of my chauvinistic imagination, but it seems that way. It could be cultural, or could be truly a matter of gender differences.)
We talk of pride being the most basic of sins – remembering that Satan said to Eve that “you will be like God” (Gen 3:5). But perhaps it is also about power – after all, isn’t Satan encouraging humankind to cast off the shackles of God’s control over us so that we can be truly in control? For many people, perhaps in the end for all of us, power in its various forms is as attractive as fame or fortune.
The problem is that we were made not to exert power or control over one another, even in the workplace, but to love. Even the spiritually esoteric psychotherapist (and contemporary of Sigmund Freud) Carl Jung saw that the two are mutually exclusive. “Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.”
But surely God manages it? Well yes, but His version of power is quite different from ours. It isn’t manipulative, self-seeking, or destructive. Because of His grace, His power made and sustains His good Creation, it is redemptive, it is sacrificial, and it is unselfish to an extreme. It is, after all, by His astonishing power that Jesus became human, and was ultimately raised from the dead, conquering sin and its inevitable consequence, death.
Of ourselves, we will not exercise power in God’s way. And yet, God has indeed given us power, and has even called us to exert control over Creation. When he said to Adam and Eve “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:29), He gave us power as His partners in Creation – our call to daily work – but He expects us to use it in His image (Gen 1:27). Made in His image, our use of power was to be driven also by love, grace and mercy. Love was to be paramount. How far short we have fallen!
The good news is that there is a way back to God’s intention. If we have the Spirit of Christ Himself in us, as is true of all who have been called by His Name and surrendered to Him, then we can again walk in the image of God. The power we are given can be truly exercised in love. Our motivations, actions, thoughts, and words as managers, leaders, team members or indeed customers or suppliers can be driven by God’s original mandate to care for Creation, and for one another, by using the power He has given us, in the way that He would have us use it – in love for Him and for one another.
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