Power and the Prius

This blog is a continuation of my reflections of navigating from the power of German engineering contained in my BMW to my Prius C. I have noticed that I drive much more slowly and cautiously. When I had the BMW, I tended to drive aggressively because I had the power. Others may not have had the power but that did not matter. I tended to tailgate. When I got the Prius, I did not have that power and so I was much more cautious. Since the Prius goes from zero to sixty in about an hour, I found I needed to give a little more lead time when pulling out into traffic. I even noticed that my BMW had a manly horn the reflected the power. I am almost ashamed to honk my Prius horn. It sounds like someone is making an apology.

Another weird side note from my Prius conversion is it is actually more economical for me to drive slower. I am equal opportunity power-cheap person. So I am willing to sacrifice power in the name of fuel efficiency. My primary metric for driving to the office shifted from time (power) to mpg (economics). I would brag to my wife that I got to the office in 26.5 minutes vs. the 27 it took me yesterday. Now, I say that I got 67 MPG to get to the office. Of course, it took me 30 extra minutes to get there. Cheapness trumped power.

I don't want to over-spiritualize this conversion from power, but God knows just how much power we can handle. Some of us don't handle power well. We lord it over people, we abuse people, we demean people. Some of us can handle power well. God is an expert when it comes to knowing our power limits. A guy like Nebuchednezzar comes to mind. The Bible tells us in Daniel 4 that God literally yanked his human mind out and replaced it with an animal mind. What was the reason - his lack of understanding of his power. In 4:30-31, the king is reflecting on his power and admiring himself when God pulls his power "while the word was still in the king's mouth". Fortunately for the king, he realized after seven years and "he lifted his eyes to the heavens". His power was restored to him.

For me, it comes to converting power to responsibility. If I say I am the CEO of a company in context of power, I am in big trouble. If I say I am the CEO of a company in the context of responsibility, I am much more inclined to act and operate accordingly. I feel a sense of stewardship and accountability before God and our team. I am still prone to BMW type power pushes and pride is always standing at the door. However, I know that God will periodically remind me of my numerous human frailties and how I must daily depend on Him in the context of responsibility.

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