Independent

The other day I borrowed a friends truck to haul around some stuff. As I was driving I noticed a sticker on his dashboard. It was a skateboarding sticker that said "Independent" (Independent is a company that makes "trucks" for skateboards, also t-shirts and other paraphenalia for skaters and those who would like to be skaters).

Anyway, I began to think about that word and the company's use of it. No doubt, many years ago, they purposely chose "Independent" to be their brand name, feeling that it conveyed a sense of boldness, freedom, strength, self-reliance, and just the right amount of "kiss off" to "Authority" that young skaters are looking for.

Then, this morning I was driving in my car listening to a favorite CD. A certain lyric stood out to me: "You have every right to be just what you want..."

America, by definition, is all about Independence; all about self-expression; all about encouraging people to stand up, stand out, and stand free from the support of others. The people that our culture tends to admire most are those who are "self-made": the Donald Trumps, the Martha Stewarts, the athletes who have overcome gangs and ghettos to rise to the top.

This is not all bad, but I don't think it's all good. In fact, I think we (and when I say we, I'm talking about the Church) have often gotten caught up in this "freedom to be who we want to be" and have forgotten the importance of DEpendence.

We are DEpendent on God for everything in our lives
We are DEpendent on one another to truly be the Church in the world

As middle to upper-middle class Americans, it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we don't need God--or at least to forget that we really are dependent on God for everything. And yet we confess that it is God who sustains all of creation (including us) and gives us every good thing.

As those who have been taught from an early age to be self-reliant, it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we don't need the community that the church provides; to forget the benefits of dependence on our brothers and sisters in Christ. Dependence in this regard offers support, encouragment, challenge, hope, comfort, and orthodoxy. Independence leads to unaccountability, and unaccountability leads to all manner of sin, and sin, as C.S. Lewis wrote, causes us to curve inward upon ourselves, eventually, independently, dying.

In 1775, Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Good stuff for our country. But as a Christian I say, "Give me the dependence of bondage to Christ and I will live, as will the Church."