Rethinking Power, Part Four: The God Powerful Enough to Share Power
- Jeffrey Jenkins
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
If God entrusts His creation to people made in His image, what does that tell us about God—and about ourselves?
Maybe sharing power isn't merely God's strategy. Perhaps it reveals something important about His very nature.
One of my earliest memories is going with my father to vote. I don't remember whether the election officials let me go into the booth with him or whether I had to watch from a distance as he cast his ballot. What I do remember is how seriously he took his role as a voter. It wasn't just another errand. It was a privilege.
A responsibility. A sacred trust.
I came away with the quiet conviction that his vote mattered—more importantly, that the voter's voice mattered.
The lesson that individual voices and actions matter was reinforced as I continued through my school years. My sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Ross, loved civics and believed his students should learn to think for themselves. He listened to me and valued my opinion—shaped at the time by my parents’ conservative stances—even though he sharply disagreed with me. Years later, my high school government teacher, Mr. Gutierrez, modeled that same respect, and inspired me to be involved in the political process.
Looking back, I realize my civic conscience—love for God, love for neighbor, and gratitude for the privilege of living in a free society—was being developed at home, at school, and at church. Long before I had the right to vote, I had the freedom to ask questions, debate ideas, and discover that citizenship requires participation, not merely observation.
I'm deeply thankful for the people who taught me that.
Over the years, I’ve also discovered that it’s not enough to just have a voice in civic life—it’s important to listen to your inner voice, obey it when it is calling you to action, and to question it at times.
That inner voice has continued to shape my life. It led me from sports administration into ministry, later into Hospice care, and eventually into this new season of public engagement.
Some 15 years ago, it also led me to question my allegiance to a political party when I realized its priorities no longer reflected the values of my faith.
And earlier this year, when I saw a large number of grave injustices being perpetrated on powerless people, I felt a strong urging to retire a year early to devote myself to social causes. This current project—A Civic Pilgrim—emerged out of this calling on my life.
So I have not stopped listening to my inner voice, evaluating what is being said, and following it where it leads. Sometimes it confirms where I am headed; at times repentance is needed.
Only by this have I grown through the years. And what I have learned is that my voice matters. We the People matter. I have come to believe this is a foundational truth that flows not only from the U.S. Constitution but also from Scripture.
This truth gives rise to an important question.
Why do the voices of ordinary people matter?
Why should our participation matter at all?
Scripture offers an unexpected answer. Our voices matter because God has chosen to make them matter. The value of the human voice isn’t first a political idea; it’s a theological one. From the very beginning God created human beings in his image and entrusted them with real responsibility.
In other words, Scripture tells the remarkable story of a God who is powerful enough to share power—a God who possesses all authority and yet isn't afraid to entrust genuine authority to humanity. Human rulers often hoard power because they fear losing it. This isn’t so with God, because his authority is absolute; he is free to entrust real responsibility to the people he creates.
From the opening pages of Genesis, God delegates responsibility. He invites human beings to cultivate the garden, name the animals, steward creation, and make meaningful choices. God doesn’t control or force action or behavior; genuine relationships require free will and participation.
This pattern reaches its fullest expression in Jesus. In Philippians 2, Paul tells us that although Christ shared fully in God's nature, He "did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself" (Philippians 2:6–7).
The early Church used the Greek word kenosis—"self-emptying"—to describe this astonishing act of humility. Yet Christ's self-emptying did not diminish divine authority; it revealed how God chooses to exercise his authority—not rule through domination, but through self-giving love that invites others to share His work.
The One through whom all things were created chose to serve, to wash feet, and ultimately to give His life. After His resurrection, He commissioned His disciples to be His ambassadors, entrusting them to continue His mission in His name and under His authority. God's authority is not threatened by being shared. It is revealed in the way He empowers His people to represent His reign through lives of humble, self-giving love.
If human beings bear the image of a God who exercises authority through shared responsibility and self-giving love, then societies flourish—not by concentrating power in a few hands—but by cultivating responsible participation among many.
Texas Representative James Talarico has observed that politics is simply another way of talking about how we treat our neighbors. At its best, politics is precisely that. Too often, however, it becomes only hoarding power—a contest to defeat opponents—rather than a shared effort to pursue the common good.
The opposite of authoritarianism, then, isn't weakness, it's authority exercised through shared responsibility and self-giving love.
This raises an important question—one we will explore further in part five of Rethinking Power:
What kind of God creates creatures capable of saying "no”?
Love requires freedom—the freedom to reject, but even more importantly, the freedom to respond with a wholehearted "yes.”
From the beginning, God’s goal wasn't control; it was relationship. If that is God's way, perhaps it should shape ours as well.
Our politics—understood simply as how we live together and seek the common good—is one place where we practice that calling. We honor both God and our neighbors when we accept the responsibility of self-government with humility, respect, and love.
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