“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Power is impatient. Power is not kind.
Power is quick to envy and quick to boast. It is always proud.
Power does dishonor to others so it may honor itself and is self-seeking, even when carefully cloaked in the name of service.
Power is swift to anger while keeping a long record of perceived wrongs and slights.
Power delights in its own effectual evils but does so while claiming to rejoice with the good of its aims. Power’s desired ends always justify any possible means.
Power only protects its own, only trusts its own, only hopes its own province will forever persevere where all others stumble and fall.
But power always fails when it masquerades as love, as liberation, as beauty and as truth.
Power is only a partial shadow, a hollow shade that gives no relief only to cease in the fullness of time.
Men like to pretend that when they were children, they thought like children, talked like children and reasoned like children, but now as POWERFUL MEN, they have put aside their ways of childhood.
But many of them are still childish, now simply whiskered and whiskey-soaked with a belly full of political opinions, a distended reflection of their younger selves poorly cast in the gildings of their years on earth.
Their masks may become more chiseled, more hardened, more weathered, more clever, more cruel — some may even be captured in marble and bronze — but concealed underneath are still those same little chubby-cheeked boys and girls, fearful and envious of one another, yet still sentimental as they long for the best life has to offer.
Power is first found at the home, then the schoolyard mud and tussle, then the bedroom romp and rustle, then the boardroom hustle and bustle, until it finds a seat in decorated halls and pretends its glories will be its salvation in the future minds of others.
But in the end, it’s just power.
And power is nothing without faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and currently, the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 9 am-12 noon. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback please email newsandviews931@gmail.com. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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