The Gift & Challenge of Independence

Perfect weather. Good friends. Smoked-on-the-bbq ribs. Homemade ice cream. Fireworks outside and in New York (on TV). Fourth of July was a fun, relaxing, celebrative day!

Observances this year were extra-ordinary, because of the significant number of this birthday. Two hundred fifty years is a lot for a young country that declared independence from an imperial power, something that had perhaps never been done in the history of the world – at least, not on that scale. The great American experiment should be celebrated!

That word independence sat in my mind over those days, with gratefulness. I am so deeply thankful for the freedoms I live in: freedom religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to pursue happiness. The right think, to study, to disagree. Independence from an outside governing force. Government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Next to the gratefulness was another sensation. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but it was something like ... discomfort. What if independence – from a foreign power, as good as this is – has morphed into personal independence to the point of becoming an idol? Is personal independence an ideal that we strive for at all costs, an inner value that guides our decisions and the way we see the world? God’s world?

From the beginning of the Bible, God has been building a people for Himself. He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth. After the flood, it was time to reissue the command again, to the one family that remained on the earth: be fruitful and multiply. God told Abram that he would have descendants that outnumbered the stars in the sky, as God was making a people for Himself (Gen. 17:7). Several times, God says to Israel that they will be His people and He will be their God (Exod. 6:7; Lev. 26:12, Jer. 7:23, Ezek. 36:28, etc.). In the New Testament, Jesus shifts the focus a bit and says to go into all the world and make disciples who follow Him (Matthew 28:19). Paul and Peter explain this as God making us into a people – His people (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:10; see also Rom. 11:17).

God calls individuals to Himself, but as we come to Him, the Holy Spirit does something remarkable: He connects us to Christ and to all the others who are in Christ. Consider Paul’s words in Eph. 2:4-6:

…but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus….

In fact, Paul’s words in Ephesians and elsewhere about the reality of our salvation uses many plural pronouns, which unfortunately look like singular pronouns in English because both come in the form of the word “you.” Sometimes I wish we translated those plural pronouns as “y’all” just to be clear! Ephesians 4:25 does give clarity where Paul states that we are “members of one another.” Of course, I Cor. 12 is full of this imagery as well.

What am I getting at? As members of Christ and members of one another, we are interdependent. We actually need one another, because that connection together is part of our redeemed identity.

At its core, this flies in the face of the American sense of independence. As a West Coast American, I am perhaps ultra-independence minded. Relying on community is not part of my nature. Being connected to people and their needs, and being authentic with them about my own, does not come easily to me. But when I am, when I do, I experience a richness of life that I think is part of what Jesus was talking about when He said He came to give life, and that more abundantly (John 10:10).

So, as I have celebrated America’s independence this year, I am challenged by my own sense of personal independence. Interdependence is God’s way, and it’s actually my way when I am being who God says I am. Perhaps I need to practice interdependence more intentionally, while giving thanks for the freedom in the US to do so.

What about you?

If you are looking for ways to connect in meaningful ways with other leaders, join me in practicing interdependence this fall. Choose from a free Scripture and Prayer Virtual Community, or a virtual Book Community or Still Waters Retreat (reasonable fees apply). Reach out to someone in your local church or network of ministry leaders to create space and time for honest conversation and learning to lean on one another. Show up for someone else because of connection rather than duty. And celebrate that we are part of what Peter described:

Once you were not a people,    but now you are God’s people….

Thank you, Jesus!