July 4 -- Independence or Interdependence -- Zakopane

Good morning the sun is shining here.  The morning air is a bit chilly.  Those of us who are citizens of the USA are awakening to celebrate our national Independence Day today.  For many of us this means picnics, swimming, parades, red meat half cooked on an outdoor grill, and too much alcohol to drive home legally.  For others, it will be maudlin bemoaning the fate of our nation as our glory days seem to have left us.  However, they might choose to celebrate, I wish all Americans everywhere a safe and happy Independence Day.  This morning I especially lift a prayer interceding on behalf of those men and women who are far from their homes engaged in battles to gain, protect, and preserve independence for other nations and peoples around the world.

As we celebrate independence for a nation it seems an appropriate time to think about independence for individuals.  You will remember that the Book proclaims that it was for FREEDOM that Jesus set us free.  We are urged to never again become entangled in relationships or beliefs that tie us up and take away any of our glorious freedom.  We are also cautioned think about how we use that freedom.  We are urged to use it to find opportunities to lovingly serve one another rather than being sucked into just serving our own self centered desires.

In this regard there are 4 different statuses I would like to glance at with you:

1.  DEPENDENCE: This is the status of a person for whom continuation of life or basic needs requires the help or cooperation of others.  Small children, the severely handicapped and frail elderly people live in a state of dependence.  Without parents or other caregivers they simply will not survive.  Many people in cooperation with satan, the deceiver, choose to become and remain emotionally and/or spiritually dependent. 

2.  CODEPENDENCY:  This is the status of two or more people who have chosen, or been deceived into, a relationship wherein each is dependent upon the other(s) and neither individual can survive and thrive without the other.  These relationships can appear symbiotic or parasitic or be an ongoing pattern of mutual destruction as is often the case in families of addicted people.  When any individual in a codependent relationship begins to become or threatens to become independent and free of the relationship, the other person or persons will act to restore the codependency (often using very destructive behaviors).

3.  INDEPENDENCE:  This is the status of an individual being able to sustain his own life and health without reliance on the support of other individuals or entities.  In order to be able, the individual must believe that he/she is able.  The status of being independent does not change merely because the individual chooses to trade money, goods, or services in order to acquire something that would be too difficult or time consuming for the individual to produce for himself, so long as the money, goods, or services required are ones that the individual is capable of producing himself.

4.  INTERDEPENDENCE:  This is the status of two or more independent individuals who make a choice to enter into a cooperative relationship.  An important element of interdependency is that each of the individuals is continually aware of his/her own ability to be independent and acts to maintain the ability to function independently at any time.  Interdependence involves the free giving by each party to the other.  Neither party is required to give but each chooses to give because he/she finds delight in serving the other party/parties.

Every human begins life in total dependence.  The infant simply cannot survive unless someone or something gives it food and protection.  If the child is reared in a healthy family he/she will go through various phases of finding and asserting his/her own identity (from a parental point of view most notably the terrible twos and the teenage rebellion).  If reared healthfully, not later than about the twentieth year, the offspring should have developed total independence and be prepared to consider healthful interdependent relationships.  In many cases this point can come in the late teen years.

In the same manner the new born child of Father God is born into the Kingdom totally dependent spiritually.  But, in the healthy child this dependence is not upon the church, any group or institution, or any brother or sister.  Rather, the spiritual newborn is totally dependent on God the Father and upon the nurturing influence of Holy Spirit.  Just as in a biological family, older brothers or sisters of the child might be given tasks to do in support of the child, however, the dependency is totally upon God not upon the brothers or sisters.  Any leaders who forget this and induce the child to be dependent upon the leader are severely crippling the healthful development of the Father's child.

As the spiritual child grows and develops, he/she begins to learn more about functioning as a mature son of God.  He/she learns to assert  God given power over satan, demons, disease, and sin.  He/she becomes more and more able to exercise self control and is less and less influenced by the deceptive influences in the world.  At some point, like the physical individual, he becomes able to function as a member of the family of God maturely and independently.

It is at this point that the individual has some very important decisions to make:

• Will the individual continue to function independently or will he/she enter into healthful interdependent relationships ?
• Is he/she called to be connected to several different other members of the body or to just one or two ?
• Will he/she choose to be discipled ?
• Will he/she choose to accept Jesus's call to be a disciple maker ?
• How is he/she called to serve other people ?

I hope that you will take the time to evaluate your own life.  

What is your status ?  Dependent ?  Independent ?  Codependent ?  Interdependent ?  

How are you doing at your own personal decision making ?

His, thus Yours,

  Stuart