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Truth to Power These days it seems everyone wants to get stronger, faster, and more powerful. The recent crises around steroid use, our fascination with American Gladiator and Survivor, “thug” culture: all of these point to a twenty-first century addiction to power. But the witness of the people of God has always differed from this “Bionic-man” culture. Power for us is located in four basic truths—truths about who we are and truths about who God is. The first truth is this: we were made by God in God’s image to be stewards of God’s creation. Every living person, and every person who ever lived, has been given the same amount of power by God—power to be symbols of who God is in this world, and power to take care of this word on behalf of God in her or his own unique way. Because of this, no one is “the weakest link;” for every single person, gives us another glimpse of the very image of God. The second truth is that we are, at the same time, mere humans and thus, weak. We are like sheep that go astray easily; as we are reminded every Lent, we are dust and eventually we will all return to dust. This truth reminds us that there is no one so powerful, so famous, so wealthy that they stop being weak, that they stop being mortal. Even Jesus Christ went through the grave to immortality; he did not avoid death, but came to be weak like us. The third truth is this: when we are weak, God is strong. God strengthens us, not because we praise in a certain way or pray in a certain way or love in a certain way. We are strengthened for a particular task. So, jealousy of someone else’s gift or power is a waste of our time and of our power. God calls each of us to specific work. And part of embracing our power is embracing our unique calls: whether to preach or to run an ethical, creation-friendly business; to teach or to defend those who have no voice. The final truth is this: we are stronger together than alone. As the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, “Two are better than one, because they have good reward for their toil,” and “a threefold cord is not easily broken.” As a result, people of faith cannot afford a “Survivor,” kick people off the island mentality. We need each other, for we are weakest when we are alone. Paul said it this way, “the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again the head to the foot, and I have no need of you.” The reality is if we want to embrace our power, we must embrace our neighbors, in all of their God-given difference. At the heart of our power are two great commandments: Love the God with all of your being, and love one another. People of God, embrace that! Soli dei Gloria
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I am ecstatic to have this profound woman sharing with us this month. It has been an effort in the making since P2M’s launching. But now, the wait is over. Welcome Rev. Margaret Aymer Oget, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center, and the board president of AIDS Alliance for Faith and Health. She is an ordained Presbyterian Church (USA) minister of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta and the author of the forthcoming First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass, Darkness, and the Epistle of James. 
This month we wanted to do something rather unique. Aware that all people express themselves differently and uniquely, we wanted to incorporate other means of literary expression on the pages of Preach2me.com. This month we kick off that effort with a “commissioned” piece from a good friend of the P2M family; Lyric Harmon. Harmon is known throughout Atlanta for her work as a poetess and spoken word artist, and is the proud mother of two kids; Miracle and David. We hope you enjoy!