We're taught from a very early age in the West to be independent; self-actualizing people. This of course translates into every sphere of our lives for better or worse. And subtlety (or not so subtlety) communicates we are god - masters of our own fate. It isn't a coincidence then that the Bible teaches us that God wants us to live dependent lives; dependent on Him and that such independence only brings hardship (Jeremiah 17:5-8).
I'm personally thinking through how I'm living dependent on the LORD more these days. Allowing myself to be in a position of complete dependency on the LORD is definitely the best place to be. It is there where God shows up. It is there where miracles happen. It is there where testimonies are formed. It is there where faith becomes a reality. It is there where God ultimately can receive "all the glory."
I'm also seeing that such dependency is intimately connected with witness. Do you see that?
LORD I want to be dependent on you today. I don't want to rely on my own resources to 'get things done.' I want you to act so that I receive your best and the world sees you; not me.
Can you relate?
Gary
There have been days in my life where I am shocked at the end of them at how indpenedent of the Lord I have been - I can remember having being consicous of it quite vividly. That is not where I want to be. Your comment resonates with me. As a bit of an aside but sort of in the same vein, I was on the train home the other day with nothing really to do and felt a great happiness knowing that the Lord was right there to talk to (don't worry I wasn't talking out loud). How wonderful having Him with me every day, all day.
ReplyDeleteAs one who also desires to continuously explore the joyous discipline (Matt 11:30 "My yoke is easy & my burden is light") of dependency on one's Maker, your thoughts are welcome ones. Persuaded as I am that the vast material universe reflects intelligent design signifying the presence of an eternally existent (and therefore all powerful) being - God, why wouldn't I desire to be dependent on him? Everything that constitutes the "I am" of me - my very "being" is the result of God having spoken me into existence as part of the created order. Everything that I physically require for sustaining and enriching life has been abundantly supplied through the diversity of resources that this marvelous world contains. Moreover, having been made in the Creator's image, I am also a spiritual being.
ReplyDeleteIronically, it is here where our profoundest struggles lie, for God as Spirit is physically unseen whereas we as material beings interact with and understand our surroundings through our physical senses alone. We are hopeless empiricists! And this because our spiritual "sense" (or intuitive awareness of a higher dimension of equally concrete existence) has been impaired due to the Fall. Hence the need, as a Christian, to continuously evaluate one's manner of thinking and living as an outward means of maintaining spiritual intimacy with God (the primary inward means being personal dialogue with God through prayer and meditation/application of the truths of scripture).
The question then is: "Who" should we be completely dependent upon? Self alone as created being (sense dependent) or God as creator (transcendent sense dependent)?
The movie "Invictus" explores the post apartheid political regime's attempts under Nelson Mandela to defuse racial tensions through the unifying comraderie of South Africa's national sport - rubgy. The title is taken from a poem of identical name composed by William Ernest Henley who, in 1875, at age 25, underwent a traumatic amputation below the knee due to progressive tuberculosis of the bone. While one understands the context for the defiant attitude (the shaking of one's fist in the face of adversity) with its manifesto of "Self" as the highest power to whom one must give answer, there are others (Richard Dawkins & Christopher Hitchens come to mind) who would embrace these sentiments as a philosophy of life.
INVICTUS
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Viewed in this way, the poem becomes chillingly dark ... for if there is a God to whom we must give answer (there is!) ... and he created us to be intimate relationship with him (he did!), then "Invictus" which translates as: "unconquerable" is a fatally flawed attitude of mind. Rather, as Christians, we should have a beatitudinal outlook along the lines of: "blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the the meek, blessed are the pure in heart ... for they shall see God". Our desire should be to practice the presence of God in our life.