What Does it Actually Look Like to Depend on God?
In the Bible, many verses point towards this idea of depending on God instead of ourselves. For example, you may have heard or read this famous verse, “Do not lean on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” - Proverbs 3 (ESV). Or when Jesus gets frustrated at his disciples for not seeing that the simplicity of a child-like faith is essential to following Jesus (Matthew 18:2-4). In these verses, these different Biblical authors are leading to a point; we, as humans, are very dependent creatures. For example, if we don’t have water for three days, we die. We need shelter and food to continue functioning correctly, and lack of sleep starts to deteriorate our bodies, and the list goes on; That is not even counting emotional or spiritual needs! In the opening verses of Psalm 23, you find a beautiful picture of this need:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He refreshes my soul,
He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake.”
Do you notice a pattern? It’s a whole lot of “He” and only one “I.” Jesus is depicted as a shepherd and we as his sheep. I learned more about this particular image from one of my pastors recently. I learned that sheep depend on their shepherd for everything: food, safety, comfort and guidance. You could say that sheep do not lean on their own understanding but in all their ways acknowledge their shepherd, who makes their paths straight. So like sheep, as humans we find ourselves in a very dependent position; hence the sayings, “Depend on God” or “Trust in God.” Despite having heard this idea of needing to rely on God, a lingering question would creep up in my mind. “How?” After racking my brain for an answer, I asked God to teach me what this looked like as I felt my life was not reflecting this clear Biblical idea for the life of someone following Jesus. Little did I know that his answer would come in the most unexpected way.
On a Friday morning, I was heading to a meeting at work. Like any other day, before I head down, I had a choice: elevator or stairs. Feeling rather motivated to be healthy, I chose the stairs over the elevator. Halfway down the stairs. I tripped and found myself freefalling down the set of stairs. With a sudden crash, I found myself hanging on the railing–recovering from the fact that all my body weight had just landed on one foot. Thankfully, no other part of my body was injured. Upon recalling the sheer pressure and twist my foot experienced a moment ago, I knew it could not be good news for my foot. I hobbled over to the school nurse for some immediate treatment and the next day I found myself with a cast on my foot and a pair of crutches. For the first time in my life I would have to adapt to a very different pace of living for a while. In other terms, I became dependent.
As I began to navigate this new normal I found myself often faced with a rather unpleasant reality. Each normal activity like going to the shower, getting food, going to work, etc., became filled with this question of, “How?” How was I going to take a shower with a cast on? How was I going to pick up my food with crutches? How long would it take me to walk to work now that I am significantly slower than my usual pace? It felt as if I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do but no real clue about how to accomplish it under these new circumstances. This process, rather frustratingly, required me to take a step back and think intentionally about habits in my life that had been so automatic, they had become like breathing. With my new injury, these automatic habits began to involve more dependency on others as I became less capable with my mobility and energy –like having people carry my things for me, take over responsibilities I could not do anymore and even have to cry out to Jesus for the simple energy to make it to work without falling over - as it turns out, being on crutches is no easy work! Much like sheep, I suddenly found myself quite dependent on others for the basic activities of my life.
As you learn to follow Jesus you are learning about who you are, who He is, and what your role is in the world. And on top of that, trying to live according to the virtues and values that seem increasingly at odds with those around you. All of these new ways to live that come from following Jesus, can leave you knowing what you are supposed to do, yet also finding yourself lacking the clarity on how to get there. In a way, it is much like my crutches situation. It is in this place of complete dependency for the next steps to accomplishing that seemingly automatic habit. When those new realities about how to live as a follower of Jesus come to mind (whatever they may be for you as you read this) and the uncertainty of how to live it out; it is in this moment that you can ask for His help instead of trusting in your own thinking. We can always bring our questions, worries, confusions, anxieties, dreams and goals to God and ask for His help in how to navigate through them. So, next time you find yourself in such a situation, instead of running out of patience and coming up with your own plan, why don’t you try being like a kid. A kid that goes to their parents with their needs and (in a healthy setting) has a full expectation that their parents will help them. As an example, think of a kid asking for food because they are hungry. Does a young 2-3 year old actually know how to get food and provide for themselves? No. They simply go to the one they know loves them and can trust that they have provided for them in the past and will continue to do so. This is how we depend on God.
As a final note of encouragement and challenge for you, is this: in your life, as you find yourself in situations in which you do not have a clear answer, invite God into them to help and get his perspective. Let Him guide you beyond what you are capable of understanding or imagining. You may find that the answer to your big questions or simple struggles of life may be simpler and more obvious than you thought. Or, it may be something you had never even considered; yet upon hearing it, you find that it makes perfect sense and find yourself with a great joy and desire to act on it. Let Him lead you into straight paths that will lead to abundant life. Believe me from experience, when we actually ask Him first, it always seems to end up much more beautiful and grander than you could ever imagine in the first place; I believe it will be the same for you. So, what does it look like to actually depend on God? Well it’s like being on crutches.