Perhaps you heard about the man who had been suffering with a headache for several days.  Finally, he went to see a doctor.  However, the office nurse who looked and acted like a Marine Drill Sergeant at Paris Island greeted him gruffly.  When he told her about his headache, she barked in a loud stern voice: "Go into that examination room, take off your clothes and put on this hospital gown.  The doctor will be there in a few minutes."  The man protested, "But ma'am," he said.  "I really don't need to go through all of that.  I just have this chronic headache."  To which the nurse answered, "Sir, did you hear what I said?  You go into that examination room and put on that hospital gown right now!"

And so the man did.  When he got into the room and closed the door, he discovered another man already sitting in there wearing a hospital gown.  The man with the headache said to the other guy, "This is ridiculous.  I don't know what in the world I'm doing in here.  This is crazy.  I just have a headache."  The other man said, "You think you've got problems.  I just came in here to read the meter!"

Now that nurse had power, didn't she?  But that's not the kind of power I'm talking about.   Not the power of brute force or blatant intimidation… not the power of political clout or wealth or weapons.  But rather the power of knowing God's presence in our lives… and what that presence produces… integrity, honesty, commitment to a great cause.  The sense of being God's co-worker, the assurance of God's love… there is nothing stronger than that.