Team Camp Devotional - Self-Controlled - 2021

Who do you think of when you think of the word "power?"

Why do you associate them with "power?"

What does it mean to you to be powerful?

Do you consider yourself powerful?

Is being powerful something you even want to pursue?

-----

In elementary school, the summer sport that I loved the most was baseball. I hadn't been properly introduced to tennis yet, but on warm summer evenings my family would spend most weeknights down at the baseball diamonds. I collected baseball cards, put together fantasy baseball teams, and dreamed of pitching a perfect game.

Of course, baseball was the "American past time." So lot's of my classmates played baseball and hung around the ball fields too. And many of us played some type of little league. When I think of power, I think back to those summer days. I think of the classmates I had who could unleash a fastball with so much speed and raw power that it was frightening. That's what it meant to have power.

When we would get to that first little league practice, all of my coaches would start trying to figure out who would be the pitchers for the season. We'd all throw our warmup pitches, and I wanted so desperately to pitch. I loved the craft of pitching. I loved the idea of being involved in every play, rather than just standing alone in the outfield. But coaches, without exception, picked the players to pitch who could throw the ball the hardest. The players who had the most power. I was never one of those players. 

It always seemed a bit unfair to me. Power seemed so randomly distributed. Why did they have the ability to throw hard and I didn't? Day after day at my house, I whipped a tennis ball against the garage door, practicing my throws and pitches. Most summer days, I pitched to the neighborhood kids while we played a pick-up baseball game. I had practiced, but I didn't have power. How could I get it?

I don't know how it felt for the players who could naturally sling the ball fast. Were they glad they were picked to pitch? Were they scared because they hadn't really ever practiced? Did they feel pressure because pitching is a big responsibility? Did they look down on those of us who couldn't throw hard? 

-----

Do you feel that you are naturally powerful when it comes to tennis?

Are there other areas in life where you feel naturally gifted?

-----

Amongst the early followers of Jesus, there was a Greek word for power that occurred in many of the letters that his disciples were writing to the communities of faith that formed around Jesus' teachings. The disciples Peter, Paul, James, Jude, and Luke all used some form of the Greek word "kratos" to describe having power or being empowered.

What's interesting about how they used this word is that the meaning of it wasn't just a raw speed, intensity or force. Instead, this word actually reflects control or mastery. One Bible concordance puts it: 

"Our modern word power brings to mind some blunt and coercing force, the Greek noun κρατος (kratos) reflects a calm and intelligent kind of control; a giving kind of mastery that comes from an intimate knowledge of whatever is directed."

For followers of Jesus, power wasn't just blunt force, the ability to do something hard and fast and with a lot of force. To truly have power, you also need to exercise self-control.

In elementary baseball, this lesson was eventually evident. Some of the hard-throwing players who got picked to pitch scared us batters to death with the speed of their pitches. But many of them were ineffectual. They threw the ball hard, but over the catcher's head. Or into the dirt. Or, most scary for us hitters, they flung it behind our backs. They had the ability to throw hard, but didn't have any control. And slowly, we little leaguers began to realize a truth that followers of Jesus had been writing about 1,900 years before:

TRUE POWER MUST HAVE INTENTION, DIRECTION, AND CONTROL.

Little by little, the elementary school pitchers who had no control, no direction to their pitches were moved to other positions. And little by little, those of us who had less "power" but more "direction" were given the opportunity to throw some pitches. In the end, the best hurlers in our little league were the ones who could direct their pitches for the most strikes. Those were the players who made a positive difference in the game.

Ultimately, when I think about power and self-control, I think about the ability to make a difference, to make an impact.  I think this is why the writers of the early Jesus communities wrote about egkrateia, or self-control, as a fruit of Jesus Spirit. It is ability, talent, power that is directed that makes a positive difference. So for their experience in watching and observing Jesus, that type of power is the only kind that is worth pursuing. 

We all have areas of our lives where we are naturally gifted with some type of force - the way we hit a tennis ball, the way our words make an impact, the way we are able to sing, the way we are able to get others to follow our lead... the list could probably go on. To truly make an impact, we reflect on how to give that force some direction.

Ultimately, that direction shouldn't just serve us, or get others to bend to our will. The example of Jesus is taking the ultimate force in the universe and laying it out in the direction of service toward others. I hope this tennis season, we can find ourselves being powerful, by serving in the direction of others.

-----

What force have you been gifted with?

How can you give that force direction, especially in service and love toward others?

What step could you take toward that today?