.: isolation and independance :.

I am severely wrestling with the concept of strength in isolation and independence. The common myth of the day is that the person who needs nobody… who is dependant upon nothing and no one… has a strength that other people know nothing of. I am struggling with the fact that we exalt those who move away from their homes and make a new life in contrast to those who stay. I have been led to believe that there comes a day and age when a person must cut all ties and abandon everything and everyone (particularly family and hometown friends). And that if a person fails to do so, that somehow implies weakness, insufficiency, or immaturity.



It has been said that all people must leave home at a point in their youth and “come of age” at a place far away from home. But my point of contention is… what if the person gets to that place, sees who they are apart from everyone else (an identity drawn from themselves, their true nature and essence, and no one else), and then desires to return home? What do we make of such people? I fear that we label them as less than those who left home and never turned back. We have managed to glorify isolation. We have exalted the ability to not need anyone else. And that appears to me to be in direct opposition to our divine nature. Having been created in the image of the divine Trinity, an essence that exists within relationship to itself (Himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), our very nature is that of relationship. We were built to coexist with others, to build and enjoy real relationships. Didn’t God proclaim in the midst of creation that it was not good for man to be alone?



And yet in this day and age, we condemn dependence upon others. (I am speaking here of healthy dependence, and not that which steals our inherent need for dependence upon God) Don’t we truly need each other, or are we to keep an attitude where we cannot rely upon others for the sake of remaining autonomous? We praise those who manage to become self-sufficient, self-governing, and self-directed. As a follower of Christ, I have yet to enter into a day where I did not desperately need Christ! I need someone else… I need the Father. But even further, in that regard, are we (as the Church) not called to function together as the BODY of Christ? That Body cannot function with independent members, different Body parts, remaining and living autonomous from the rest of its members. I as a Christian – as a human being - simply cannot remain independent of everybody. Or is that the one exception to the rule? Is Christ the only one we can be dependant upon and the rest of society is available for less dependant relationships?



(more to come...)