“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth . . .” – Genesis 1:26
Once upon a time when I was a younger man I would have lunch with my business buddies and the conversation was inevitably about how to make more money. Nowadays when I have lunch with my pals we seldom talk about how to make more money, instead our conversations center around how to make a difference.
What a change in priorities, at least it has been for me; for once I had been convinced that it was by making money that one became empowered, until I realized that as a human being created by God that I had already been empowered, indeed it is my birthright, to have dominion over all the earth. How powerful is that? But there’s catch, I must choose how to use the power bestowed on me. With it I can do good or evil, love or hate, be self-giving or self-absorbed, make the world a better place or leave it worse off. It’s up to me.
Perhaps more than anything what has transformed the lunch conversations my friends and I have is the realization that we only get one shot and it is up to us to decide what outcome we want with that one shot, to make the world better or leave it worse off. How will we use the power we’ve been given?
In his own day Joshua challenged the people of Israel he had been leading to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my household,” he declared, “we will serve the Lord.” A time comes for all of us when we must choose and declare how and for whom we will use our God-given power. What outcome do we most desire? Will we use it for good or evil, love or hate, to be self-giving or self-absorbed? Will we make the world a better place or leave it worse off? Each of us as a child of God created in His own image has been empowered to rule over all the earth. How will we use that power?