This question started bugging me this past week shortly after I stated to someone, in a casual conversation, that I've really come to depend on my computer and the internet for much of what I do on a daily basis, from work, to information-seeking, to staying connected to people, to leisure activity. I guess it started bugging me because while it was stated as a simple observation, it began to feel more like a confession as I reflected on it later. Then I had to wonder what it was that made it feel like a confession? Did I feel bad about something? Was it the fact that I was dependent that bothered me, or was it on what I was dependent? Hmm... Yeah, I know, I think too much.

Anyway, as I began to try to sort out my thinking on the idea of what it means to be dependent, a verse of scripture came into my mind. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' Acts 17:28. (And yes, I depended on the search engine on my computer to verify the reference.) Paul is being quoted here in Acts as he is in conversation with philosophers in Athens. As I read the context, it is interesting to see what he is trying to do in what he is saying. He is speaking of our dependence on God in the midst of the pagan temples full of idols to the gods the Athenians would have said they were dependent on. And what Paul is challenging them on is not their dependence, but rather on who they are actually dependent.

I think we all would admit (if pushed a bit) that we are not independent beings, but actually totally dependent on forces and persons outside ourselves for our existence. Even an independent businessperson is totally dependent on their customers. Paul is saying, and I'll agree, that being dependent isn't a bad thing, but it's good to state accurately on what or whom we are dependent. Why? Because as Paul points out, we tend to make idols out of what we think we are dependent on.

Proof of this in our own lives requires only stopping to think for a moment about who/what we are dependent on, and how we feel or respond when access to those persons or things are cut off. Are we dependent on our paycheck? Am I dependent on my computer? Is America dependent on oil? Are we dependent on certain people in our lives? Are we dependent on what others think of us? Or on our name? These few questions begin to help us see not only how truly dependent we are, but also how the way in which we choose to shape our lives determines on what/whom we end up being dependent.

Paul shows us that we can shape our lives in a way that we end up thinking we are dependent on someone or  something other than the God who created us and sustains us. We can forget too easily that the things on which we are immediately dependent are actually ultimately from the hand of God. Only to the extent that we can remember that can we maintain a proper amount of allegiance to the other people/things on which we depend, which must always be secondary to our allegiance to the God who is Love.

May our thoughts and prayers this Lenten season lead us deeper into our truest dependence, on the one true God who desires to transform our lives in order to become more perfect reflections of the image of love that is within us all.

Pastor Carl