REAL Independence Day

 Most of you had some sort of celebration yesterday and a few may be celebrating today, but 4 July is one of the biggest holidays in the USA. We celebrate it, like all major holidays by overeating. But for most of us we ought to take a little time and recognize that we are not really all that independent. Our country might have declared its independence from England, but most of us are still quite dependent. In fact, I argue we are all dependent, we are simply depending on different things.

We might be dependent on our job. We devote lots of time and energy--more than we give anything else--to "earning a living".

We might be dependent on our spouses. I don't mean dependent for money or food, but dependent on another person for solace, comfort, assurance, worth.

And, speaking of worth, we might even be dependent on our children. What? Yes, some folks draw their "raison d'etre" from their kids. They dote on their kids, invest extremely deeply, and depend on their kids to demonstrate how great their parents are and how the kids' sport prowess or academic achievement shows how worthy the parents really are.

I could go on and on about our dependence, and I do want to encourage a degree of dependence and independence. Ultimately the only dependence that is worth relying upon is dependence on our relationship with G^d enabled by the sacrifice of Jesus, the Christ. Our only real independence from the world, from work, from others (including our spouse and kids) comes from dependence on G^d.

I am encouraging us to be good workers, spouses, parents but we achieve this best by being good Followers of our L^rd Jesus.

So celebrate Dependence Day--Dependence on G^d for our real independence from fear and from death.