Reflect

“With great power comes great responsibility.” That’s the philosophy of the Marvel Comics character, Spiderman. He certainly has great power—sticking to walls, shooting webs, amazing strength, and agility. But the thing which has endeared Spiderman to millions of readers is that as his alter-ego, Peter Parker, he has arguments with his wife, he was a nerd in high school, and he has trouble paying the bills each month. Basically, he’s a normal guy with normal problems that superpowers can’t fix.

Many of us are like Spiderman/Peter Parker. We have power in certain areas of our lives, but not others. Many of us are also like Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12. In situations where our power is threatened, we’ll do almost anything to preserve our power, or to feel like we have power. Some people who feel powerless at work become tyrants at home. Some people who feel powerless at home become tyrants at church. A child who feels powerless in the family kicks the dog, or maybe even takes a gun to school and kills fellow classmates.

—Andy McClung

Question

1. If you could have any superpower, what would you want it to be? Why? What would you do with it?
2. Where in your life do you have the most power? The least? How does each situation make you feel? Which do you like better?
3. Do you agree that power carries the burden of responsibility? What do you do with your power? Use it for your own good? For the good of others? Try to use it in a way to benefit yourself and others at the same time?
4. Why do you think the Israelites switched from worshipping God in the Temple at Jerusalem to worshipping the gold calves made by Jeroboam?

Act

1. Examine your personal relationships and for each one, determine if the power is balanced between the members of that relationship. If so, use the same power-balancing techniques in other relationships. If not, work in making it so.
2. Determine the persons or things which have power over you, what they do with that power, how they achieve and maintain that power, and if their having power over you is good or bad. If they are bad, brainstorm options to deal with them.
3. Identify the “gold calves” in your life—those things which draw your worship away from God. Refuse to give them any more power over you.

Photo by Justin Lim on Unsplash