Some time ago, I read a story that really made me wince.

And it's apparently a true story that came from an African tribe where they have a very unusual custom.

And it is for them to elect a king, but that king can only serve for seven-year term.

At the end of the seven-year term, that king must be killed.

I thought, you know, who can be foolish enough to do a job for seven years so that can be killed?

They said there's overabundance of candidates who are vying for the position.

Just think about this. For seven years, he is in absolute control. He has total power. He can do

anything except for one thing. And that is, he cannot change the custom of the killing of the sitting king after seven years.

That's the one thing he cannot do.

Anything else during those seven years, he is an absolute power.

He's sovereign.

And yet, so many candidates would rather live with power and overindulgence for seven years than a good

long life, normal job. Then I thought of our Western culture. How many people in our culture

to whom the present is everything? They live for today. They live for this day. They're living for the now

with no thought of the future. They live for the present experiences and they let those present power

trump everything else in life to exercise power even for a day. Someone said that

power is a drug on which many politicians are hooked. They actually buy it from the voters,

using the voters' own money to buy it.

Personally, I prefer what William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army, said about power.

Here's what he said.

Listen carefully.

He said, the greatness of anyone's power is the major of his surrender.

...