Interdependence

Interdependence

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Ephesians 5:21

Independence is self-sufficiency, self-dependency, and self-reliance. The Amish are opposed to any sort of independence. In fact, one of the first prayers they learn is this: “I must be a Christian child, gentle, patient, meek and mild. I must cheerfully obey, giving up my will and way.” Yet things were very different for the first Amish settlers in the eighteenth century.

The first communities were made up of clusters of families, most of whom were related by kinship ties. There was no overall or master plan of settlement. In fact, individualism and strong family autonomy seem to have had greater reign than church control. The behavior of some Amish was inconsistent with the tradition of the Amish as we know it today. The color of their wagon tops was not yet uniform, and in Chester County the Amish had built a meeting house. The long, intense voyages across the ocean may have resulted in alliances and friendships with persons who were not Amish. For many years a single bishop, traveling by foot and horseback, performed marriages and offered communion to scattered clusters of families. The Lancaster Amish settlement was not divided until 1843, nearly a hundred years after the first Amish families arrived in America. With the growth of settlements, the Amish ordained resident bishops, and thus church control began to be exercised over family and kinship rule.

Just like the Amish, we are told to submit to one another: “You have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13).

Self-sufficiency, self-dependency, and self-reliance not only disconnect us from one another but also disconnect us from God. God wants us to depend on Him, and the more we submit to Him and our Christian brothers and sisters, the more we understand how God planned for us to live our lives as the body of Christ.

Dear heavenly Father, help me to depend on You more today. Help me to depend on others, too, and be dependable for them.