Me? Dependent?
Teana and I were both raised in the military. Until our dads retired from the Air Force, we and our siblings were considered “dependents,” you know, like when you claim your children on your tax form. If our dads had remained in the military until we were 21, only then would we have been considered independent. But with dependence came the BX, the Commisary, the Teen Club, free medical care, every benefit afforded to our dads was ours, through them. Dependence is a great thing!!!
That human beings are divinely created and given existence for a purpose outside of themselves is one of the major sticking points for our friends who are unwilling to accept intelligent design or worse, any concept of a Creator Who is providential over His creation. Why this strikes a negative cord in the rebellious mind and will of an unbeliever is not difficult to fathom. The reason is not even below the surface. If people are created by God it implies, well, actually means, that (1) they have no independent existence apart from that Creator. Okay, now we’ve offended someone and only the first point has been made. But that’s right. What human being ever willed themselves into existence? That alone proves that a human’s existence is dependent or contingent upon something or someone else. So, get over it. No one is independent. People argue the point but unsuccessfully. This is why all the kids who want to look like their own person, be it preppie (sp) or goth or punk, etc., always end up looking like the same people they hang around, even to the extent that you can’t tell them apart. Where’s the independence? Adults make the same claim but do the same thing, only more subtely. Even Alaskan fur trappers who live by themselves for most of the year are dependent on consumers to buy their products, on small grocers to stock their camps, etc. No one is independent. Everyone’s existence is contingent on something else. (Try living without oxygen for 10 minutes)
So it shouldn’t be a shock that human beings really are dependent on someone/something else for their creation, and also dependent on someeone/something else for the their existence. (Even Michael couldn’t kill himself on Lost because the island wouldn’t let him….Not that I watch Lost.) Even if you’re not a theist or deist, you’ve got to confess, you didn’t create yourself. You are not independent. Come on, I love the spirit of Invictus, but it just ain’t so. You are not the captain of your own soul. And the ramifications of our dependence are enormous, both for now and forever!!!!