I depend on God alone; I put my hope in him.
– Psalm 62:5
I was diagnosed with Grave’s disease in late 2012. I had gone through several bouts of extreme fatigue and extreme weight loss. I looked like a shell of the man I used to be. The treatment I chose meant I had to be isolated from my wife for 3 days and from my 1 year old for 21 days!
I had opted to receive radiation treatment instead of surgery. It’s non invasive…I had had several surgeries and wanted to avoid any new ones…yet it comes with the consequence of isolation.
It was a tough moment in time for me, having just had our first child and having to be isolated from her. I had to depend on others for the most basic things. The first 3 days, I needed food brought to the room I was isolated in. Any communication to the outside world had to be by phone…The outside world included my own home.
Thankfully, my mother was here to come to my rescue. She was able to come and stay with us while my wife went to work. I learned the importance of dependence. I depended on my wife and my mother for all my basic needs. I have also learned to depend on others for various needs I may have.
My independence supplies me with the skills necessary to help others when they depend on me. My dependence is cultivated by focusing on the relationships around me before I ever need them desperately.
It is in the moments of great independence that we ought to realize our dependence for when we’re dependent it will be too late to build dependence and support systems.
We have an obligation as human beings to be dependent on one another while displaying a high degree of independence. Overall, our dependence on God ought to be the greatest. We ought to know that all others can fail us but God never will.
Dependence on God frees us from the viles associated with independence and leads us into depending on the right people.
Prayer: Lord, help me to know how to depend on You so that I can be freed from the viles of independence and learn how to depend on the right people. Teach me how to find what I need and be what others need. Amen.
Reading: Psalm 62:5-12
Nelson Masinde 