Dependence

5/10/2015

2 Corinthians 1.8-9 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. -Paul, the Apostle

Who says life in general is a party? Life is full of difficulty, disappointment, and despair punctuated by momentary bouts of happiness, relief, and hope.

Yesterday, I had big intentions of getting some stuff done. I needed to build a wooden frame and miter the corners of the frame. Couldn’t find my saw. When I did find my saw, I realized, after several cuts, why I am not a finish-carpenter. I needed to get some laundry done and at multiple points in that process wanted to throw our high-efficiency, smart-washer into the street. I decided to clean the dryer vents out while I was at it and couldn’t find the attachments for the vacuum. My son took the car to go to the movies with his main-squeeze and so I decided to get on my bike to go to the store. I overinflated the front tire and it popped. (No replacement tube). Difficulty, disappointment, despair.

Life is what life is and I was getting dangerously close to losing it. (At least I didn’t burn the dinner like I did last weekend…) But today I read that even the great apostle, Paul had his moments as well. There are no guarantees in this life, and there are no happily-ever-afters. God designed this life as preparation for eternity and He designed us to depend on Him. Dependence on God must be a big, big deal with the amount of effort we humans expend resisting it.

Dependence on God doesn’t mean we don’t do anything; it means we expend all our energy and effort learning how to depend on Him. Without Him we are left to ourselves, and there you go, we’re right back to where we started from…have you seen my saw?

I’m not trying to be cute (despite my afternoon, yesterday) but I am trying to make a point: life is full of disappointment, difficulty, and despair. Yesterday, a little child went to heaven. She suffered in her brief life and now her journey on earth has ended. Today, I’m sure her folks are very, very, very bittersweet. (I know, we were once there as well.) Life is what life is…

But life is made to cause me to depend on God. Today, I have more appreciation for that than I did yesterday; and tomorrow, I hope (in the hopefulness of hope, not the wish-fulness of thinking) that I will be even more dependent upon God, and less so on myself.

Father, thank You that You patiently, lovingly, and eternally work in our lives to wean us away from self-reliance – that part of us that insists we don’t need You. May I continue to learn to cooperate and walk humbly in step with You – amen.