#chierushireads

[chierushi]

What comes to mind when you hear “power,” or “weakness,” may be degrees off what God means for them to mean. At present in the West, weakness is to be avoided at all costs. Yet at the same time, “power” is evil and must be wrenched from the hands of those who have it and redistributed to those who don’t, under the assumption that concentration of power in one (probably patriarchal) group is evil. Supposedly, this is because the previous understanding of these two words by the so-called patriarchal system—which the present Woke-Western world is trying vociferously to overturn—is wrong. Our whole political moment is obsessed with prying worldly strength away from those who have it. It’s a zero-sum game, and when God’s people play it, we all lose. That is because we’re playing a game with Babylonian categories.

The gospel is the story of the all-powerful One, who exerted his omnipotence through what the world calls weakness. He did this to undermine the very system of this world, down to its core—to show everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth that the whole game of this world is rigged and wrong.

Babylon’s categories pit the worldly weak (the poor, sad, depressed, lonely, disenfranchised, and so on) against the worldly strong (the rich, powerful, handsome, beautiful, famous, and so on). We’re all just trying to beat them or join them.

— Stop Taking Sides: How Holding Truths in Tension Saves Us from Anxiety and Outrage by Adam Mabry

The popular notion nowadays is to acknowledge privilege and give them to minority. But what I’ve seen as of late is how they have agonized the majority for being dominant, whether they’ve done actual fault to specific people or not, and the other side can’t and shouldn’t argue back, or they commit oppression. Ill treatment towards people in power now seems fair, even calling it justice by some. But that’s simply flipping the rigged system over to your side.

Jesus showed us that to lead is to serve. Those in power are given the responsibility to hold their authority, not for evil and/or selfish reasons, but solely to be of service to their people.