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Power, cf. appropriate
G. Gordon Liddy
I once heard G. Gordon Liddy speak to a college audience in Missouri. Throughout the evening this former White House aide, who had been only a short time earlier released from a prison sentence for his part in the famous Watergate episode, urged upon us the idea that only force, strength, ruthless use of violence and an iron will could earn the respect of friends and foes in this “real world which is, in fact, a very tough neighborhood.”
I am enough of a “Christian realist” in the tradition of Reinhold Niebuhr to at least appreciate an element of his thinking. After all, the government’s role is the use of force. And in a fallen world it is needed. But Liddy seemed to mean more than this: force and a strong will for him were not provisional answers in a fallen world; they were the answer.
One of my colleagues on the faculty rose to timidly pose the question: “But in our country, most people…after all…do base their ethics on…like…the teachings of Jesus…and” (finally he got it out with a rush) “this-doesn’t-sound-much-like-the-teachings-of-Jesus.” He sat down.
Liddy glared a moment, took in a breath, and bellowed: “Yeah—and look what happened to Jesus!” He flailed his arms outward, holding them as if on the crossbeam of a gibbet: “They crucified him.” To Liddy, the case was closed. The audience reacted, briefly, as if stunned, astonished—and then with thunderous applause. After all, Liddy only said out loud what everyone else had already concluded: “Failure, persecution and pain, instead of success, appreciation and a good retirement—that’s no way to end up.”
A. J. Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven, (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois), pp. 100-101
Car Problem
In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push.
After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.
Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, “Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life.
For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.
J. B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, “How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.” When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.
Ernest B. Beevers, Source unknown
Parade Float
One New Year’s Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas.
The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas.
Often, Christians neglect their spiritual maintenance, and though they are “clothed with power” (Luke 24:49) find themselves out of gas.
Steve Blankenship, Source unknown
Resource
- God Came Near, Max Lucado, Multnomah Press, 1987, p. 95
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