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Independence, self-determination, and self-reliance are all deeply ingrained in
our culture, and most of us admire people who take charge of their lives.
We sense an evident fact ___ without some initiative
and personal responsibility, no one accomplishes very much.
There is truth in that, of course, but does our
life experience tell us anything about the need for a healthy reliance on
others?
We should not expect others to do for us what we
can do for ourselves, but we are dependent on one another in many different
ways.
We discover that fact anew whenever the car
malfunctions, whenever we go to the supermarket for groceries, or whenever we
experience a need for human love and understanding.
In our moments of crises, we need to be dependent
upon God. Even in our times of success, there are no strengths or talents
that we have not received from God.
Our very lives have been gratuitously given to
us. The next time we ponder our successes, we might remember to be
grateful to the God and to the fellow human beings who made them possible. |
