While sitting in the library the other day for no real reason other than to enjoy the wonderful smell of old books and trying to see if I could find something to pass the few hours ahead of me, I stumbled upon the magazine section and found my vices, Vogue (For the fashion crazed metrosexual man inside of me), Car And Driver (For the masculine vehicle obsessed man inside me) and Psychology Today (For the… well I’m not really sure what for, but I love it)

Anyways, as I was reading an article in Psychology Today titled “Who Are You? (And What do You Think of Me?)” I found the topics of the artical incredibly interesting and the following passage to be extremely helpful in understanding some things about my, and many other people’s, simple question of “How in the world did he/she ever get all this power?” and also understanding how to deal with anyone in a position of power, whether great or small. 

“Power turns people into “raving sociopaths,” says Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. It distorts the way they see themselves. They have a hard time seeing the world from other people’s points of view. They judge others less accurately. They interrupt others. They speak out of turn. Their behavior becomes insensitive—often in a costly fashion.

The cost tends to be outsize risk-takingdirectly stemming from overconfidence. Think of John F. Kennedy invading Cuba. Or of the recent financial collapse. “These are instances in which people felt excessively empowered,” Keltner contends.

That, he notes, is the central paradox of power. The skills that lead to obtaining power deteriorate once power is obtained.”  -  Hara Estroff Marano of Psychology Today Magazine

After reading this, the only thing I could do was to remember that God is the only true power and the only one who can be consistently good, merciful and righteous with it, and although I may disagree and have issues with some people who have worldly power over me at times, the Bible says in Romans 13:1

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”

As well as these things, I must also remember that any “power” which I attain here on earth is completely a gift from God and should be treated as so, with all praise being given to God.  So just as it says in Jude 1:25

“All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.”