I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the person trapped on a rooftop in a flood who proceeds to reject aid from rescue workers because, “I’m counting on God to save me.” It’s a good example of confidence in the Lord gone wrong.
Dependence on God is a different brand of reliance.
The stages I outlined last week – dependence, independence, and interdependence – are the same stages we pass through in our faith maturation.
Whether our belief in God blossoms as an outgrowth of our parents’ instruction or we’ve undergone a distinct “conversion” experience, most of us remember a “honeymoon” era with the Lord where we felt assured both cognitively and spiritually of the divine presence. I liken this period of dependence to that of chronological childhood. If we had reasonably good parents we felt safe and shielded from the world’s harms.
Like any good parent, God knows we need to grow up. The world poses hard questions and confusing choices and somehow, it can feel as though God has withdrawn. What is really happening is that God is trying to grow our independence. Think of it as a parent who steps away from the child learning to ride a bike. “See what you can do!” God wants us to be aware of our actual skills and gifts, because the Lord wants us to engage with what is already in us to do the work of building the Kingdom.
We’re not going to stay in independence in our faith, however. God intends the work of our calling to be collaboration. Despite being omnipotent, the Lord chooses to work in the world interdependently with us. Our reliance on God resembles a relationship with a good boss – one who never assigns us tasks without providing the necessary support to back up our efforts.
It is divine graciousness that as we work for the glory of God, God chooses to share that glory with us.
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4 Responses to Adult Children