Power can be very deceptive. This coming from someone who has never had much and who does not desire much, beyond a measure of control over my own destiny and how my story unfold and is told.
However, I have observed that any measure of privilege and lead one to be consumed with a sense of self importance. As I hear an old woman tell her young caregiver to look wood to roast breadfruit, instead of using the coal she bought, I see the evidence clearly. Her position as employer and her caregiver as employee, has given her the right, in her mind, to see her as less than. The man who has the handle is seemingly in a better position than the man who holds the blade. Therefore, the one at the lower end must be careful not to antagonise the other or else his very life may be short lived.
Imagine the one who has the power to determine, who eats and goes hungry. Who lives and who dies. What great power that persons has! And yet his or her power is never complete, it is always finite.
For all the millions, billions and even trillions, one thing the rich cannot buy is more time. At some point the fabulously rich, those who have some measure of wealth must face their own mortality. They will get sick, some will make it to old age, but, all will eventually die. When we think of all those great kingdoms around the world, the one thing they all have in common, is that at some point they only remain great in the memories of those who chose to remember and tell their story.
“the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever.They lay their crowns before the throne…” – Revelation 4:10
Even if you have a throne that you sit on here on earth, one day you will have to give it up. You will have to throw in the towel, give up the crown. If the natural order of life does not lead to this inevitability then someone else will come to claim or take it. Quickly the ones jostling at the top on their tippy toe point realise, maybe too late, that they were never meant to remain there forever, but only for a while. Because we all came and saw the world it is reasonable to assume that nothing here really belongs to us. The crown we wear, if we do, will have to be laid down as we acknowledge that any power we have is limited. If the elders around the throne of The Most High were compelled to lay down their crown in acknowledging a greater power than their own, what does that say about each of us!
For some it may be very hard to consider those who he looks down on from his lofty spot. He may shake his head in pity and the poor misbegotten souls. Never thinking that they can very topple from that envied spot. Some never consider that they are are very short distance away from where they started or sinking even lower. The horror at the indignity of once again being ordinary is a fate worse than death for many. However, it is a fate that we all begin with and all must end with.
Some will say that this pandemic has been the great equalizer, but it has also revealed that many cling to their throne to the detriment of many,and many cling to a crown of Pyrite.
