Power Without Control

The American Tire Company has an ad for a slim racing tire with the caption, “Power is nothing without control.” This slogan is meant to imply that a powerful motor is useless if you can’t stay on the road.

This ad is a profound answer the age old question of why a loving God would send us to Earth with bodies laden with a natural tendency for sin and then give us commandments to resist those tendencies he gave us (Mosiah 3:19). One of the objectives in this life is to learn self-control so that we may inherit even greater power in the next life.

There is no greater example of the damage that sudden and great power can do to an unprepared person than Lottery winners. A classic example of this is the story of Jack Whittaker. He won the single largest jackpot ever. He stated in the beginning that it would not change him. Ironically, a once great businessman is now a blundering peepshow addict, he has mountains of legal problems, his precious granddaughter is dead and his wife says that she wishes they had never won that money. The power of $114 million dollars was simply too much for them to handle. In fact, 70% of all Lottery winners end up broke.

As much as he may want to, God simply could not just give us Heaven like some kind of Lotto winner. Just like a father gives his three-year-old a bike with training wheels rather than a powerful motorcycle, we have come here first to learn how to control ourselves so that we can handle the great blessings of the next life.

I believe that God is waiting at the other end of this life anxious to endow us with blessings incomprehensible to us now; if we will just make use of this life and the opportunity to resist the natural tendencies we have.

Mathew 25:1-12 Parable of the Ten Virgins.