Monday Morning Meditation #48: Whence Power?

I have been told a number of times that one should begin reading the Bible with the New Testament, not the Old Testament, because wading through the OT can be boring and cause one to give up the quest to read all the way through. However, I find it just the opposite. Simply because something happened centuries ago does not make it without a message for today. Indeed, throughout the Old Testament to date I have found a great many messages for 21st century people. This week's reading is no different. I stopped in the next chapter of 2 Chronicles at one very simple sentence -- a very simple sentence and also a very striking one:

Jotham [King of Judah] grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God.

How easy it is to forget that all power comes from God. If we think otherwise, we are deceived. And if we think the power of man, including the power of man over man, which we have seen all too often through history, including in our modern age, is at all meaningful, we are very mistaken. Whence power? Power is from God.

Reading: 2 Chronicles 27:6.

Meditation: Recent events at work remind me of the incredible power of God, especially when we come to Him as would a child -- and very especially if. One of my employees went into the hospital early last week for routine knee surgery. Following the surgery, i.e. the next day, she seemed fine. However, when she stood up for the first time, she immediately collapsed. She was in a coma, and her lungs were filled with blood. No blood was going to her head. So, the hospital placed her in ice to protect her brain. After that, one organ after another began failing.

At the same time, all her colleagues began praying. One colleague wrote to me that not only he but also his four young children were praying for her. He claims that his children's prayers are powerful. I bet!

Well, this morning the news came that the lady is out of the ice and out of the coma. A scan was taken, and there has been no brain damage. She still has a ways to go to return to her previous life, but today hope exists where there was little earlier.

Whence power? From the prayers of children!

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I must retire to private prayer to thank God for watching over my employees (we have had far more than our share of miracles), to praise Him for placing real power in the hands of the least of this world, including and perhaps foremost, children, to repent for any time that I ever might have considered that my position gave me any power, and to ask Him to help me more fully establish a servant leadership organizational culture in my division, one in which every manager realizes that power comes from the least not the most and that no power comes at all except through the will of God. Now I retire to spend as much time as I can in contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.