I’ve been reading and learning a lot recently. I won’t go into too much detail about what I’ve done, but in the past month, I’ve taken a few assessments, read a few books, and been in a few discussions (sorry this is so unhelpfully vague). I’ve wanted to start blogposts many times, but because these ideas are so new, it takes awhile to process them, and by the time I have semi-understandable thoughts, I am overtaken by the next novel idea.
Pretending to be Deep in Thought
Here’s a mind map I drew a couple of weeks ago to illustrate the complexity and connectivity of all that I’ve been thinking:
Scratch Paper
Today, I want to write about power and privilege. This topic is very popular in conversations around race. In America, the lighter your skin color, the more power and privilege you have. Pretty simple. Now, with great power comes great responsibility, or so the saying goes. That power and privilege can be used selfishly or selflessly. One use elevates self, and the other elevates others. If one is a Christian, you obviously want to elevate God in everything you do, but God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
According to Marykate Morse, there are four aspects of social power: expert, character, role, and culture. Each kind of social power can have positive and negative effects, as illustrated in the image below:
Social Powers
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As I’ve reflected on the concept of power, I am realizing that I’ve been blessed to be under people who used their power and privilege to elevate others.
In middle school and high school, I was part of math club (yes, I was a nerd who did math for fun). My math coach was a woman who saw potential in me and encouraged me to keep doing math. God brought her to Santa Clara University my sophomore year, and I continued to work under her as a math tutor for college students. She taught me how to problem solve through math problems, but also through tutoring sessions.
In college, my EE advisor was the chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, who also happened to be my friend’s mom. Dr. Krishnan was awesome. She was one of the most engaging and intelligent professors in the department, and she will be the first to admit that she actively recruited me to be an electrical engineering student. She helped plan my classes, made sure I could graduate on time, and even attended my music performances. She supported me, not only in my engineering endeavors, but also my passion for music. She cared for my well-being, warning me against taking too many classes, and reminding me to do the things I loved. She gave me confidence through her presence, words, and actions. Through her, I saw that I, as a female, could thrive in EE, and anywhere I applied myself. Dr. Krishnan used her power to empower me as a female engineering student.
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At Cru, we have a weekly meeting called Sacred Prayer. It is a time that teams stop and spend an hour in prayer every Thursday. There is usually a prayer prompt, but Andre, the director of Marketing (my boss’s boss), has a reputation of “going rogue.” My very first Sacred Prayer time felt very special, and so was the one we had this week. I will try my best to explain my experience.
I am someone who is very slow to warm up to people and groups, and I can go weeks without sharing my thoughts in a new group. I wasn’t surprised when Andre’s philosophy involved us to “volunteer, or be voluntold.” If you didn’t speak up, you would be asked to.
But Andre doesn’t just throw people into the spotlight (or under the bus). He models vulnerability and courage by being the first one to share. He steps into uncertainty, shares about difficult transitions, and demonstrates humility while opening up about the ways God is working in his life. This is the type of leadership that seems so counterintuitive and different from what I had seen before.
I remember being so touched that I wanted to remember my first moment with the team. I looked up my journal entry after the first Sacred Prayer on December 19, 2019. I wrote:
“Andre did such a good job leading. I don’t know how he does it, but he took the first big step and created a safe space for sharing. And he voluntold team members in such a gentle way, and it was so cool to feel “at home” in the office.”
Nine months later, Andre did it again. During Sacred Prayer last week, Andre started by asking us to share a recent time when we felt cared for, known, and loved by others or by God. While others opened up about family members or team members, In Andre fashion, he helped us open up. One father on our team teared up sharing about his son. It was so special that Andre could create space. All of a sudden, it struck me that, while I have not spent very much time on this team, I felt cared for and valued here.
After our sharing time, I Slacked Andre:
“Hi Andre, I just wanted to share that I felt very cared for and known at Sacred Prayer yesterday (to answer your first question, late haha). You model courage and vulnerability so well, and I always felt very safe and valued. Thank you for leading our team 😊”
I’m not sure how this directly connected to power and privilege, but I still think it’s relevant. Andre demonstrates a kind of leadership (and leaders always have some kind of power) that I want to emulate when I grow up.
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This past Sunday, Pastor Collin preached on Ruth 2, and how Boaz was a providential person for Ruth. When everyone in Israel could have shunned Ruth as a poor, widowed, immigrant woman, Boaz chose to prioritize her wellbeing and fight for her dignity and honor. He leveraged his resources, time, and attention to empower Ruth, respecting her as an image bearer of God despite her status in society. It was a poignant reminder of all these ideas, and a beautiful foreshadow of Christ, who fought for the outcasts in society during His time on earth.
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Now if this was a college essay, I would conjure up a clever way to tie up all these examples I gave about power and privilege. There would be some thesis I would defend with these real-life examples, and they would all be related in some way. But alas, that is not the case. These are glimpses of role models in my life who use power positively. As I examine my own life, God is slowly revealing the power and privileges He has given me. And I can choose to leverage those positively, to elevate and encourage others. What does that look like? I am still figuring that out.
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