Independence Day

 From the time that we are very little we value our independence.  "I can do it myself" is a common refrain among those who are little and those who are older as well.  We never really grow out of the "I can do it myself" phase.  Even as adults we do not like to ask others for help or worse, to receive help that we have asked for.  We want to do it ourselves.  The trouble is that independence is not what we make it out to be.  And there is no better example than this the July 4 and what it symbolizes.

I wonder if the soldiers fighting the revolution thought that they could do it by themselves.  Of course they were fighting for the right to self-govern, but even that was created with system of checks and balances that allowed no one branch, or one person to have control.  Each citizen (although at that time poorly defined) was a part of a much larger process.  In this way independence was a civic responsibility - working together for the common good of all.  

Of course in our "modern" society of terribly uncritical individualism, we redefine independence to mean that we should each be in charge of our own lives.  Nothing could be further from the truth, especially for those of us who claim the name of Christ.  Because of Christ even our own identities are not really our own because we have been bought with the price of His blood.  Our independence is an independence from our sin nature and instead an enslavement of sort to the righteousness of Christ.  And we are independent together - for the Word of God calls us to serve each other as we have been served by Christ.  

So as we think about this July 4, perhaps we should reconsider the meaning of independence and how we can truly should Christ through the freedom that we have in Him!