Being the Most Powerful Person in the Room

by Thomas Denegre

Today’s reading from Mathew 5:38-47

As a Christian, you are called to be the most powerful person in the room. I’m not talking about Bill Gates power, or President of the United States power, or a mafia boss power.  I’m talking about the power of God that is within us to change people and to change the world.  Let me tell you about Louie Zamperini.

In the true story called Unbroken, Louie Zamperini was an American Olympic runner from the 1936 Berlin Games.  In World War II his plane crashed in the Pacific and he spent 45 days adrift in a life raft. Hardly alive he was captured by the Japanese and was tortured for the next two years. Barely holding himself together after the war, he recounts his story to crowds of people.  But he must first numb himself with alcohol to tell his stories.  Living in a death-ward spiral in alcohol, Louie attended a Billy Graham crusade giving his heart to Jesus.  His life became transformed and renewed where he set up a powerful ministry transforming the lives of thousands. Truly, when his heart broke for Jesus, life, meaning, and power entered into Louie.

So let’s explore the nature of power.

To satisfy justice, Jesus explained the old way of tit for tat; or eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.  Throughout the ancient world the custom was revenge for a wrong against you.  This was the code of the sinner or the ungodly, (Psalm 1:1) who used their force of will upon one another. Force is not power.

We all know the outcomes of using the force of our will against another because for every push we impose we get one back.  Force always has a counter force.  Force seeks conflict and justification. Force is prideful, selfish, and brutish.  Force seeks to judge and condemn.  It results in polarization, not unity and its costs are high. Someone must always win or lose, whereby enemies are created requiring a constant defense. Being defensive is always costly as the anger, bitterness, envy, lust, and resentment will result in negative outcomes personally and culturally. This is the way of the sinner, the ungodly person, and the wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23

Then Jesus tells us how to become the most powerful person in the room.  He said we must love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, “that you may be the children of your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:45) Finally, Jesus said, “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”(Matt 5:48)

Being perfect throws us all off, because we think it’s impossible.  Yet, we know our loving Father would never set us up for failure.  The Greek word here is 'teleios' and it can mean ‘perfect’ but it is more usually used to refer to maturity or wholeness. Research indicates the writers of the Vulgate translated the word into ‘perfectus’, when it really means “to be complete.” Or, to be made whole.

To understand this mystery the Lord brought to my attention two pieces of artwork.  In Japan, Kintsugi artwork will deliberately break a pottery bowl and mend it back with gold transforming it into a unique beauty.  The other artwork shows major cracks in a human sculpture with bright light shining through it.

The answer becomes obvious.  It is through our brokenness that our creator makes us whole and complete with the power of the Holy Spirit. Our brokenness does not come in our destruction, but when we open our hearts to God's love and trade in our pride for humility. In the same way, Louie didn’t become transformed and powerful until he opened his heart to Jesus. 

We become a unique beauty that radiates the light and power of God’s love.  By dying to Jesus, we admit to our brokenness, humility, failure, and incompleteness. We just can’t do things without God. By being born again, we become saints, (Eph.2:1-10) who are set apart to be with God. By living in life union with Jesus and having his words living powerfully within us, the power of God transforms us while His power radiates through our cracks into to the world.

When Jesus said, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one,” (John 17:20-23) we become the most powerful person in the room as the same glory of God that filled Jesus, fills us.  Did not Jesus say we will be doing greater things than himself? (John 14:12)  By being broken to God, His glory and power is allowed to complete us and to transform.

As a son or daughter of God we must understand the power of God’s glory is within us. Unlike the sinner’s (ungodly) use of force, a son (saint) of the light knows God’s power is rooted in love, meaning, significance, and purpose. Rather than having a counter-power, power stands still. It is like a standing field, such as gravity, that does not move, for love, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, compassion, and generosity are always received and never reacted to.

By being in God’s power we find nobility of purpose and sacrifice are inspirational, giving life significance. Like water filling a sponge, God’s glory completes us, enables us, and nourishes us.  God’s power is self-evident in that life is more important than death, that honor is preferable over dishonor, that the constructive is preferable over the destructive, that forgiveness is preferable over revenge, and that mercy is preferable over judgment and condemnation.

We become the most powerful person in the room by allowing our brokenness or humility to reveal God’s power through non-judgmental love, understanding, mercy, and forgiveness. By extending these powerful forces to friend and foe alike, we allow God to disarm them while soothing their wounded heart.  By living in life union with Jesus, we are given the ability or power to see people as God sees them.  Compassion, wisdom, and mercy will arise in our hearts from Jesus to make us the most powerful person in the room to transform lives such that, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Transformed and Strengthened

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen    and no cattle in the stalls, (verse 17)

These verses from Habakkuk make me stop and think and then question my own faith. If everything fell apart in my life and pain surrounded me, would I, could I, praise God for who he is?  Sure, I've survived difficulties, we all have. I've experienced the pain of losing a husband. I've failed at a business venture, lost a friend to deception and more, but these things all happened one at a time, with lots of space in between.

It is the space in between that makes the difference. When I have time to recoup or regroup I can deal with it. When there is a season for healing and lots of occasion to talk things out, my faith stayed intact. I did not lose my belief in Jesus and His love. I believe it grew stronger during those times of pain and defeat.

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,    I will be joyful in God my Savior. (verse 18)

I've not had to deal with an explosion of losses all at once. I can't declare with confidence, that I would stand strong if I lost everything - like Job - in one swift moment. Now, I don't want to be tested in this, but I do wonder just how strong my faith is. Maybe you are as unsure as I. Maybe you too, feel inadequate to a test in this area.

I encourage you to use these words from Habakkuk, and others like them, not to beat yourself up for a possible weakness. but rejoice in them. Use these words as a goal, as a place to grow into. God uses all our happenings, good and bad, to mature and strengthten us. Praise God in this moment and for this moment.

Dear Jesus,
If it came right down to it, I chose to belief that I will stand strong, that the faith you have instilled in me and used to reach others for your sake, will be just what it needs to be at that moment.  Amen

Habakkuk 3:17-19

The Great Co-Mission

Matthew 28:18-20

If we are transformed by Christ, then we are called to put that transformation into action.  What good is being transformed if we don’t do something with it?!  We’re transformed for a reason and at the top of the list is discipleship.

Now I’m not talking about standing on a street corner, with a sign, shouting “Repent and be saved.”  That kind of discipleship doesn’t work for me, but I do like the idea of forming relationships with people and sharing my story.

In today’s passage, Jesus addresses the disciples and tells them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (v. 18).  That’s a powerful statement.  It demonstrates that Father and Son are one.  Jesus has all the power that God has and so what he’s about to say is not a suggestion, but a command.

Charles Spurgeon wrote “Power in the hands of some people is dangerous, but power in the hands of Christ is blessed.  Oh, let him have all power!  Let him do what he will with it, for he cannot will anything but that which is right, and just, and true and good.”

We can rest in the knowledge that what we’re called to do – teach others what we have been taught – is for the absolute good of the kingdom.  Although we may think we don’t have the right personality for discipleship or that we’ll use the wrong words and mess things up, Jesus assures us, like he did his apostles, … “I am with you always” (v. 20).

We are not alone as we carry out his mission, or rather, Co-Mission.  As we share his message, HE is the one leading the way.  He is the one giving us what we need to succeed.  It’s through the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit that we are called to use our transformation towards the transformation of others.  What a wonderful way to serve our God!

       

Chosen and hand picked by God

"The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be is people, his treasured possession." (Deuteronomy 7:6)

One of my greatest fears in school was being overlooked. When gym class played a team sport and the captains would choose their stars, those people who would carry the team to victory, I was pretty certain I would not be one of them. Many of us remember, and still today, feel the humiliation and pain of not being good enough.

Unfortunately, we often carry our inferior mindsets into our adult world. Most of us will grow out of this feeling of never being good enough; but some don't. Praise God I am a new creation. I know my short-comings, but more important, I know my strengths and I know who created me and made me who I am today. But, it wasn't always this way. I had to be renewed and transformed into a confident follower of Jesus.

Just to know I was chosen by God, to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ, is humbling beyond words. I may not have made the volleyball team, but I have been chosen. There are several clichés I could use here, but you get the idea. Once God got my attention through Renewal (Christ Renews His Parish) about 20 years ago, everything changed for me.

Now, it is my duty to see that I tell others about being chosen. It is time I share with all those who think the rejection of man has any weight in the Kingdom of God, that being chosen by God is all that matters. The Bible is full of stories of this, let's start pointing it out regularly, especially to those who desperately need to hear.
 
Deuteronomy 7:6-8