(A reflection shared at the Youth Vigil on the Feast of Pentecost 11-12 June 2011. This reflection was delivered from 11.30 pm to 1am. Since Powerpoint was used to illustrate the thoughts, the following notes might seem very sketchy.)
The key text that you have chosen for the Pentecost Vigil this year is:
God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control (2Tim 1:7).
When I looked up at this theme, I remembered a billboard that I had seen years ago at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was an ad for Pirelli tyres. It had the caption: “Power is nothing without control.” Therefore, I would like to reflect together with you tonight on the meaning of Power and Control.
Let me start with an analogy to clarify what I mean: just imagine that you have this beautiful car with six cylinder engine; it has a good pickup; it can race up to 200 kms per hour without any problem. But it has just problem: it does not have a brake! What would that be like?
Consider the power of the gushing water. It could be destructive. But when channelled it could be so beneficial. Yes, power is nothing (and even dangerous) without control!
We look at even the recent history of world we realise the impact of political leaders who have exercised power without control. And we have had disastrous effects: for instance, Hitler and Stalin. Closer home we have had several of them: life presidents who did not allow them to be ‘controlled’ by their parliaments, or the media, or even the wananchi (citizens).
So the question is: are you powerful? Do you enjoy some areas of your environment where you have the possibility to exercise power? And what controls have you put in place? Remember, power is nothing without control.
Let me offer a very brief background to the text that you have chosen for reflection tonight. St Paul had founded a Christian community at Ephesus and entrusted it to the care of the young man, Timothy. Some scholars think that he must have been about 20 years old during the time of this letter, because Acts of the Apostles (Acts 16:1-3) says it was Paul who actually got Timothy circumcised as a young boy. In any case, Timothy had a very difficult task of leading a church that had many problems: fertility cult, disagreements and shyness to practice their faith. Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him, and to remind him that “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control” (2Tim 1:7). I invite you to pay attention to ‘spirit of timidity’ (with a small ‘s’), and ‘Spirit of power’ (with a capital ‘s’). Here, St Paul is clearly talking about the Holy Spirit.
So, what are your own powers – including those given you by God the Spirit? We are endowed with different types of powers:
- Drives: for instance, sexual drive – a drive to express love and to give life;
- Affluence: may be you are born and brought up in a well-to-do background. This gives you power in your environment;
- Influence: you might have the power to influence people; you might be having connections and networks with people who are influential in our society, and this is power;
- Talents and gifts: these are endowments that you are born with; they give you power. Your intelligence is power too. People who are talented in music and sports also exert power in our society today.
- Skills: these are abilities that you have developed through learning. They give you power.
Besides these, there are also spiritual powers. In a narrow sense, this is what St Paul is talking about. In a broader sense, Power of the Spirit can mean the gifts of the Holy Spirit that St Paul talks about elsewhere in his letters (Rom 1:29-31; 1Cor 6:9-10; Gal 5:22-23). I am of course looking at ‘power’ in a concrete sense that is relevant to us young people.
Let us now look at the meaning of Self-Control. This is related to self-discipline and self-regulation. I would prefer to use a positive word: ‘agency’. There is a human need to have agency (the ability to direct and to practice autonomy) over ourselves and our environment. People become mentally ill when their agency is threatened. Some people exaggerate this need and exert too much control. This itself would become power without control.
There is a new movement in psychology which is called, ‘positive psychology’. This approach focusses on happiness and wellbeing. Psychologists within this approach have come up with a list of 24 character strengths (also called ‘Values in Action’. visit http://www.viacharacter.org/Surveys/SurveyCenter.aspx). They collated this list after examining literature in different religious traditions and researching various cultural institutions. These character strengths are said contribute to human wellbeing and authentic happiness. If we closely examine this list we can recognise what has been referred to in the Christian tradition as Cardinal virtues, Theological virtues, Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Now, one of these 24 character strengths proposed by positive psychology is self regulation. Self regulation is how you exert control over your impulses and behaviour so as to pursue your goals while maintaining moral standards.
Self regulation is a virtue. ‘Virtue’ implies two things: (a) virtues are good habits: that is, they are repeated behaviour that become part of you in due course; (b) virtue lies in the middle. Therefore, exaggerations are not healthy. An exaggerated self-control could become a compulsive negative unhealthy behaviour; similarly, a laissez-faire attitude would imply loss of sense of agency over self and environment.
On the other hand, self regulation positively understood is a rhythm of life that facilitates self-efficacy.
In this connection, some of the contemporary slogans propagated by the media and the commercial world could be misleading. Take for instance, the slogan of Nike: “Just do it!”. It sounds cool, but is it healthy? Can you just do whatever you wish just because you feel like it? Therefore, to begin with, I think, we need to exercise better agency over what we hear and see in our environment. We need to critically evaluate all the values sold at the market place of the contemporary world.
Let us see how else we can exercise self-control:
(1) Coming back to our definition of self-regulation, we said it is how we exert control. Yes, self regulation is a process of exerting control (agency) over our thoughts, feelings, and actions (behaviour). Human beings are like an ice-berg. What we see on top is behaviour. But beneath this lies our thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings interact in such a way as to prompt action. We ‘think’ in terms of self-talk and images. For instance, as I wake up in the morning I might do a self-talk: “Oh what a bad weather!”. This thought could prompt a feeling of lethargy. This lethargy could make me sit in a disinterested posture in the class-room. Therefore, one way to exercise self-regulation over our actions is to exert better control over our thoughts.
(2) Self-regulation can also be understood in terms of delayed self-gratification. This consists in resisting the temptation to choose an immediate, small reward so as to obtain larger benefit – even if the latter may be delayed. If Adam and Eve had believed in some self-regulation may be the history of salvation might have been different. So try at times to delay gratification, then you might experience better level of agency.
(3) As it has been mentioned above, self-regulation involves establishing goals, and monitoring and evaluating behaviour. So the third way that I would like to suggest for self-regulation is to clarify your life-goals. Begin to clarify the purpose of your life. Damon, a Harvard-based psychologist, has studied the difference between young people who are experiencing flourishing (one-fourth of the young population of the U.S.) and those experiencing languishing. And he suggests that the difference lies in their sense of purpose. The sense of purpose consists in a set of goals that lie beyond the fulfilment of our immediate needs. That is why, in John 1:38, Jesus asks the two disciples who follow him: “What do you seek?” Today, Jesus asks you the same question: “What are you looking for in your life?”
(4) There are psychologists (like Baumeister) who say that self-regulation acts like muscles. Muscles get stronger as you use them regularly, and they get weaker when you use them less. Similarly, the more you exercise self-regulation the more it becomes easy to practice self-regulation. For instance, when your alarm goes in the morning, if you wake up immediately, the next day it becomes easier to wake up in time. But when the alarm goes today, if you turn to the other side and continue to sleep, tomorrow it becomes harder to wake up at the alarm!
(5) Through research, psychologists have also come up with something more interesting – it is small but very significant. They say, if you do ANYTHING that requires self-regulation, then that makes it easier for you to have self-regulation in EVERYTHING. For instance, if you make an effort just to sit straight, it will be easier for you to have self-regulation in your eating or sleeping habits. It is as simple as that. In this context, Jesus’ saying: “One who is faithful in little things, will be faithful in greater things” (Lk 16:10) takes on a new impetus.
Come to think of it self-regulation is not simply the control of power, but the enhancement of power by channelling it. May we allow the Spirit of power to work in us! And we respond to the Holy Spirit by our willingness to regulate our own selves, and use that power to enhance our lives and the lives of the community around.
Sahaya G. Selvam, sdb
Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, Upperhill, Nairobi.