In America we are wired to crave independence, even if we have to fight for it. I’m teaching high school students American history this month, and I think that goes all the way back to our first attempts to cut ties with the British. At sixteen, we get our first real taste of independence when we get to drive without our parents. For two years, we are teased by the opportunity to go and do on our own, at least until curfew. At eighteen, we leave home and often never look back. We set out to achieve our goals and pursue our dreams. One of those goals is usually to be able to support ourselves without any help from other people. We may talk about sharing life with others, but in reality, we aren’t willing to allow ourselves to need anything that other people offer.
That may all seem harmless, and in some cases, even admirable. The problem is that this is completely counter to the way that we, as followers of Christ, are supposed to be living. We are called to depend on God. We are to be led by the Spirit so that we won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We are called to live by faith, not by sight. We are called to acknowledge that the very breath we breathe is a gift from the Creator of life and the cosmos. Our lives are meant to be so united to the Father’s that we are one with Him as He and Jesus are one. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I don’t feel like I’m there yet.
And that’s not even all. We are supposed to depend on God, but we are also called to depend on one another. We are all members of one body. I can’t fully be who God created me to be and do what He called me to do on my own. God has given me certain graces and gifts, but He has also placed other people in my life as manifestations of His grace to do those things that I don’t have specific graces and gifts to accomplish on my own. He put those people there so that we can partner together and do more than either of us could ever do on our own. And His vision for us is much bigger than anything we could do alone.
This is a choice. We can choose to pursue independence, or we can choose to forsake our own agendas and goals and pursue a life lived in unity with God and His people. We can press into this messy thing called community to the point where we share others’ burdens, or we can isolate ourselves and feel relieved when we go home at the end of the night because we don’t have to worry about the needs of anyone else. We can derive our very life from the Father, or we can keep trying to live a life worthy of our calling independent of the strength He offers. We can submit to Him in our weaknesses and receive His grace in time of need, or we can keep acting like we have it all together and hoping one day it will be true.
The truth is that this is a choice we make every moment of every day. Some days I still let my sinful nature that tries to be like God apart from God win. Still, as I have opportunities everyday to witness the beauty of what it looks like to be who God made me to be and let others be who God made them to be without expectations to do anything more than that, I realize this is a much better way to live. There is freedom in that kind of life, more freedom than when we declare our own independence.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
– Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
