Independence
Independence is highly valued in western culture. At birth we are entirely dependent on others, but little by little, our parents are relieved of the responsibility for our physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual well-being. As we become more mature, two things happen. One is that we are able to do more for ourselves as our bodies develop strength and coordination. The other is that we shift our dependence from our parents to others. Friends, teachers, coaches, camp counsellors, doctors and others in the community fill in where our parents leave off.
Ironically, we're often unaware of just how dependent we really are. Over the years we rely on a host of unseen, often unknown people who provide services in our communities, keeping the water flowing in our pipes, the electricity in our wires, the grass cut in the park, the garbage collected from the curb. We also depend on the police, the military and even politicians. We are far more dependent on others than we imagine.
God made us to be dependent on him and interdependent with other people. But most of us don’t really like that very much. We prefer independence and autonomy. We like to feel that we don’t need others and that we aren’t responsible for the well-being of anyone else. Humans have always been like that.
Our first parents did not want to be dependent on God. They wanted to make it on their own, but after they broke their relationship with God, they found that their own relationship with each other was poisoned. Shame was introduced. Once the connection with God was broken, the source of healthy human connections was broken as well. They traded their dependence on God for rebellion and alienation. They traded their interdependence on each other for distrust and a desire for control.
It is a commonly quoted medical fact that lack of human connection can be fatal among infants and the elderly. It can also lead to all kinds of other problems during life, contributing to anxiety, addiction, depression, and other disturbances. The desire for unhealthy levels of independence affects us personally, socially and spiritually as it leads us away from God and His purposes for us. The emotional problems which result from disconnectedness call our attention to our deep-seated need for God and for healthy relationships with others.
Reconciliation with God as the source of life and the chief provider for our primary needs is the foundation for spiritual and psychological wholeness. We can't expect to have strong healthy human relationships when we are in rebellion against God. From the beginning, separation from God has produced distrust and alienation between individuals. In the Bible we read that Jesus Christ Himself is our peace. He has broken down the wall which separates one person from another. Those who accept Him are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens in the kingdom of God and members of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19-22 A right relationship with God through Jesus is the basis for right relationships with others.
Often people are unaware of being disconnected from God because they never had a relationship with Him. They have no concept of what that is or would be like. What they are aware of, often painfully, is the dysfunction of broken human relationships.
Restoration of our relationship with God is based on the terms God has set down for that restoration. He did the unimaginable. In the Gospels, we read that God broke the perfect connection with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He took our sin on Himself so that we might reconnect with Him. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read that God made Him who knew no sin [referring to Jesus] to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God loves us and wants us to come back to Him. He is waiting for us to respond by calling out to Him... The Bible tells us that God “is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” (Romans 10:12-13) So with confidence I invite you to call on God today as He invites us to be in a healthy relationship with Himself and with others. To begin that relationship, we acknowledge that we have offended God by rejecting Him and his rightful place in our life, then we recognize that Jesus Christ, God's Son paid the penalty for that offense making it possible for God to receive us as children - children who enjoy the care of a loving Father on whom they can depend.
Ron Hughes
© July 2007
