THOUGHT: Authority, Power And Other Distortions

So who's in charge?
That is a phrase that gets an awful lot of use in this society. We don't like messing with a middle-man. Take me to the top. Get me to the top of the chain of command; that is success, right?
Or is it horrid with a sidedish of being uncomfortably binding? I am not really a fan of chains at all.
How does God, the ultimate authority deal with the stuff? What He is like is very important to us and it is even more critical if it is different than the way we perceive God to be. So much of the way we see God is perception and not reality. We then base our thoughts on our perceptions and not on the truth. We try to make God look like something that we already know, that we are familiar with. But God is not familiar He is completely other, completely different. For one thing God exists in a trinity. Well how does the trinity work together? That would be a good place to look when trying to model community, don't you think?
There is no concept of final authority in God, only unity. There is a relationship without any overlay of power. Jesus does not need power over the Holy Spirit because they are both looking out for the best. Hierarchy is a human problem.
We are broken and mixed up. We are so broken and so mixed up that we can rarely even see the level of our problem. We have great difficulty even imagining a relationship, whether at work or at home, without someone being in charge. It is in every human institution: politics, business and even marriage is infected by this kind of thinking.
Such a waste.
This has got to be one of the key reasons that experiencing true relationships is so hard for us. We have to always sort out the power structure and assign roles to those around us knowingly or unknowingly; we do not see all people as equal. Once you have created a hierarchy well then, you need to implement rules to protect and administer it. After there are rules there must be enforcement of those rules and then you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promoting it.
Is it possible to experience relationship apart from power? Can you experience the wonder, the awesome-osity of relationships when hierarchy is such a dominant way of thinking? We do it even when we do not consciously know that we are doing it. It is just the way that we think.
Where does it come from, you may ask? well check this out: Everytime we choose independence over realtionship we make it stronger and then we become a danger to each other. We no longer seek the good of the other but first and foremost the good for me. Others become objects to be manipulated or managed for our own happiness. Authority, as we usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want. And how many times have you seen this happen? It happens everywhere: families, churches, school, government, clubs, sports teams...anywhere you put people together.
In our world the value of the individual is constantly weighed agaisnt the survival of the system, whether political, economic, social, or religious--any system actually. First one person, and then a few, and finally even many are easily sacrificed for the good and ongoing existence of that system. In one form or another this lies behind every struggle for power, every prejudice, every war, and every abuse of relationship. The 'will to power and independence' has become so ubiquitous that it is now considered normal.
As the crowning glory of Creation, you were made in the image of God, unencumbered by structure and free to simply 'be' in relationship with God and with one another. If we truly learn to regard each other's concerns as significant as our own, there would be no need for hierachy.
But we have it. Now together let us try and take steps to grow in a manner so that we will diminish the impact of the reign of selfishness and inequality in our relationships.
No. I did not say it would be easy.

ideas and thoughts that have been thought
with thanks and respect to the book "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young.

g-ram