4 DEMANDS OF INDEPENDENCE
From birth to old age, there is always the nagging desire to be INDEPENDENT.
Babies, for instance, do not have a concept of other people’s schedules. In the very first few weeks, they are independent in the sense that you can’t control their feeding or pooping times.
When babies become children, they can’t wait until they can do things on their own.
Teenagers can’t wait until they become adults, independent of their parents.
At some point adulthood brings the rude awakening of responsibility. So, they start saving up and waiting for the time when they retire so that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.
Why do we have this nagging feeling? I think it’s because we quite often, and rightly so, equate independence to freedom. The problem arises when we focus on highlighting freedom and not balancing it out with the demands of independence.
The problem arises when we focus on highlighting freedom and not balancing it out with the demands of independence.
Look at the rise of the Indie industry, for instance. You’ve got your Indie artists, Indie authors, Indie films, and I’ll mix into that your solopreneurs. Who knows what other types of Indies are out there? On the outside, it looks like this makes it possible for anybody to get into whatever industry they want. There are no music labels, publishers, corporations, nor bosses to please. However, on the inside, there are a multitude of demands to be fulfilled to get you onto a successful road. You don’t have the resources, expertise, connections, etc., that the bigger corporations have. So you can appreciate the ones that have been very successful as Indies as you know there’s been a lot of hard work that brought them to where they are.
It’s the same with an independent nation. This weekend, we are celebrating the 239th year of America’s independence from Great Britain. When this nation was born, we weren’t very wealthy, but a lot of work was put in by our forefathers to make us a successful nation.
With that in mind, I’d like to reflect on the independence of the nation of Israel from Egypt centuries prior. What did it take for them to form a new nation, independent of her 400 year master? What were the demands of their independence?
- Someone to followRemember when Moses went up the mountain and he was there so many days? They felt lost without their leader. In Exodus 31:1 they told Aaron, “…’Come make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” (NAS)
Not only that, you’ve got Judges 21:25 telling us that “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This was many years into their being an independent nation in the Promised Land.
They needed someone that could show them they didn’t have to be slaves forever. God had other plans for them and they needed someone to lead them the way to the Promised Land.
- Someone/something to worshipWhen they lost sight of their leader, they also lost sight of the God that delivered them with a mighty hand out of Egypt. A lifeless golden calf was no comparison to the One who parted the Red Sea for them, but they were desperate for someone or something to call their leader and worship as their god.
In the course of their history, there were times when they either worshipped God or worshipped other gods. Either way, they were always worshipping Someone or something. In other words, they knew that they needed a power outside of themselves to keep them safe, healthy and make them prosper. When they turned their backs from God and attributed that power to other gods, they faced calamities and disasters. Eventually, they were brought into captivity and lost their independence.
- Structure They needed laws to maintain peace and order. These God gave to them in the very beginning of their nationhood. When they strayed away from them, they got into trouble.
- SustenanceAs an independent nation, they needed to be able to provide for themselves. That’s why going to the land of milk and honey was a great promise. On their way there, God miraculously provided them with food and water. When God finally gave them the land, they eventually had to work it. As long as they followed God’s commands, He blessed the land to give them a bountiful return. When they strayed, the land lost its fruitfulness. There was economic trouble.
Do you see the pattern here? God was in the center of their independence. God provided for them and taught them how to live as an independent nation. When they strayed from Him and His commands, they lost their freedom.
Much like Israel, when our nation was born, we needed a leader to keep us in the right path. We elected our own presidents. Our leading forefathers wrote the Constitution to give us structure. These leaders recognized God’s hand in all of this and submitted and proclaimed us as a nation under God.
It’s pretty scary that we are little by little changing the Bible-based laws embedded in our Constitution. We still proclaim ourselves as a nation under God, but do we act like it? Without God, we wouldn’t be a nation. Without God, how long, I wonder, can we remain an independent nation?
Let us pray that God would first of all, open our eyes to our shortcomings as individuals. Maybe in striving to be independent, we’ve forgotten that we still need to be dependent on the God who gave us life. We need His direction, His structure and His sustenance.
Then let us pray for our nation that He may help us turn around and go back to following Him wholeheartedly. With our structure and sustenance being shaky, we need Him to lead us back to being truly independent.
My Future Is Alive 