Last week's readings told us how God's ways are not our ways. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," the prophet Isaiah wrote in the first reading. The rest of the readings spoke of God's eagerness to show mercy rather than vengeance when wronged.

Today's readings implore us to be more like God in our thinking and behavior. "Have in you the same attitude that is in Christ Jesus," St. Paul writes to the Philippians, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave."

The theme of power is before us like no other time in an election year. The candidates for president carefully craft each word that they speak, and every gesture is analyzed by hundreds of media outlets. It is a race for power, of course.

And sometimes it seems as if the parties and people running for office are more concerned about winning the contest than about implementing any particular policy. The goal is power, and it is pursued with any legal means possible.

Of course, the lust for power is not limited to politics. Corporate leaders, nonprofit leaders and even church leaders have at times been guilty of acquiring power for its own sake, living at the expense of others as if it is their right.

Jesus did not grasp for power - at least not the kind of power we understand. Rather than debate and attack his opponents, Jesus sought to put his life in God's hands, trusting in a power greater than anything he could achieve through forceful activism. Rather than seize the title that he was due, he allowed God to give it to him as God saw fit - through suffering, death and resurrection.

This is the attitude that St. Paul encourages us to adopt. To empty ourselves and become servants, dedicating ourselves to empowering others rather than promoting ourselves. It is not easy. Our society seems to celebrate those who succeed on a grand scale, who elevate themselves and flaunt their success through all available media. Our society does not, on the other hand, reserve much in the way of reward and recognition for servants.

God's ways are not our ways. It is our ways that need to change. I don't know about you, but I find it very easy to believe the message of our culture that true power comes through wealth and success rather than through service and humility. I don't want to empty myself. I want to remain full, and self-sufficient. The message of today's readings is that fulfillment comes when we put our lives in God's hands, and that we are most successful when we are empowering the neediest members of our communities.

It is not my way, or my thought, to live as a servant. Thankfully, it is God's way and God's thought to, in Christ, lay down his life for others.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa. He may be reached at bptidings@yahoo.com.