I was taken aback by the news of Senator Lindsey Graham's death. I had just read an article about his visit to Ukraine. The next morning, I was shocked and saddened to learn that he had died. If the reports are mostly correct, despite serious chest pain, Senator Graham waited to get emergency medical help because he planned to keep a scheduled television appearance. The news reports cannot reveal his thinking or tell us the Senator’s state of mind. Whether the report is true or false, it gives us reason to ask how political power can harm human judgment.
For eleven years, I walked the halls of Congress as a government affairs specialist. I saw firsthand what immense human power can do. Members of Congress do not merely hold impressive jobs; they exercise great government authority. Senior officials treat them with deep respect, and national and international media follow them closely as their decisions affect millions of people. Years in that setting can produce deep self-importance and a belief that one is indispensable. People outside Washington may believe they understand this effect, yet its full force is hard to grasp until one has seen it firsthand.
This does not mean that every Member of Congress acts the same way. But Congress strongly rewards confidence, personal action, and endless work. It also rewards the belief that important matters depend on the Member and their expertise. Over time, a person may stop seeing their work as one important calling. They may begin to believe that institutions, policies, or even nations need them to succeed.
A Reformed view identifies this as a failure to remember the Creator-creature distinction. In simple terms, God is the Creator and we are his creatures. God alone exists by his own power, and God alone is indispensable. All human authority is given by God, our lives depend on him, and our abilities are limited. God does not need anything from us. Scripture says,
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." (Acts 17:24-25, ESV)
Scripture also warns those who speak about tomorrow without admitting that they depend on the Lord's will. Political importance does not change this truth.
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil." (James 4:13-16, ESV)
Reformed teaching on vocation, or calling, says that public office is a trust from God. It is not a form of personal rule. A civil magistrate is God's servant with a limited task. Such a person is not the nation's final guardian, nor are they needed to make history move forward. A calling can become the main source of a person's identity, who may then mistake constant work for faithfulness. A person may also mistake real duty for being impossible to replace.
The Sixth Commandment also requires the lawful care of one's own life. It calls us to respect and protect both the lives of others and our own:
"You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13, ESV)
Calling emergency services at once is not weakness, fear, or a failure of duty. It is a wise acceptance of our human limits. It is also a proper use of the ordinary means through which God often preserves life.
The main lesson goes beyond one person's reported medical decisions. Vast earthly power can form habits of mind that work well in political discourse but become dangerous before God and reality. Power can lead a person to think their duties are more urgent than anyone else's. It can make a person trust their own judgment too much; it can also make them feel indispensable. Scripture answers that false belief with humility, wisdom, an awareness of death, and trust in God's providence. No political office removes the limits of the body, no office cancels the duty to protect one's own life, and no mere human being is necessary to the purposes of God.