Our Higher Power, as the twelve step programs refer to what I would call God, comprises all of those 32 shades of meaning and more besides because power is not just something that God has, but it is God's essence - it is something that God is. God is Power just as God is Love.
The Catholic Church, at the moment, is becoming more awed by God's Power than God's Love. The new translation of the prayers of the liturgy recalls more the experience of the people of Moses' time who were told not to touch the mountain of God lest they die, than the example of Jesus who allowed a woman - a woman! - to pour oil over head and wash his feet with her tears.
This ambivalence about the nature of God, however, is not peculiar to the Catholic church. Throughout history, religion has see-sawed between honoring the majesty and power of God and accepting God's nearness and care for us all. Jesus went to the cross because of His insistence that the Father heard Him and loved Him and was One with Him.
This might be purely a philosophical debate except that when we err on the side of distance, we deprive ourselves of the Power to live life to the full. When we believe that it is up to us to solve our own problems, we guarantee that the outcome will be puny. When we hand our problems to our Higher Power, God "can do more than we can ask or imagine," as St. Paul promises in Ephesians.
God's "out of the box" approach to all that concerns us shouldn't be surprising. If medical science can use electricity to rearrange our brain's thinking patterns and relieve depression, how much more can the God who created the Universe bring new awarenesses and opportunities into our lives? Far from giving up or giving in, asking God to take over our fears and concerns is an opening up to possibilities far beyond our control.
Let go; let God is a contemporary way of saying what was told to the Psalmist: "Be still and know that I... am...GOD. Thank God!
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