Self-Made?

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing.” – Jesus (John 15:5)

Are you one of those Christians trying to “do the Lord’s work” yourself? How quickly we forget Who has given us everything we have and enabled us to do everything we do! It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that every believer has, at one time or another, gone down the rabbit trail of “good works” to earn God’s favor, instead of serving Him out of sheer gratitude for the unmerited favor (grace) we already have.

Then there’s the “self-made man,” who doesn’t even believe in God, much less give Him credit. But God is the One who gave him his abilities, his mind that could benefit from the education (provided him by his parents – also gifts from God), job opportunities, health and safety so he can continue to work, and the gift of living in a country where what he “earns” isn’t immediately taken away from him by tyrants. Every day of his life – life itself – all came from the God he doesn’t believe exists.  

Uncle Phil, a character in my book Sparrows, is such a man. The reality of his life comes crashing in on him when his workplace – the World Trade Center – crumbled in moments, and he and his friend Ben barely escape with their lives. The men are brought to shelter in a nearby church by an unlikely stranger.

Later that evening, after Ben has fallen asleep, Phil finds himself reflecting on his life and how he has gone from the top of the world to barely dodging death, now sitting covered with ash and not knowing what to do next.

His mind was still reeling at the thought of his own helplessness, a thought still so foreign to him. He had never been helpless before in his life.

Well, that wasn’t quite true. Of course he had been completely dependent as a baby, before he could even make his needs known clearly. But he didn’t remember those days. His first memories were of being a child in preschool … of course he had been dependent there, too. He had felt like a big boy because he could walk, but he had unknowingly depended on his parents to see that he didn’t walk into the street or the swimming pool. He had felt independent, but of course, he wasn’t really. Then he had become a cocky, popular teenager … Well, he had been dependent then, too, although he never would have admitted it to anyone. But obviously someone had fed him, clothed him, and provided a roof over his head, a car, and driving lessons …

As he looked back over his life, Phil was gradually becoming aware that every act of “independence” and “achievement” on his part – getting a degree, landing a great job, flying all over the world – had actually been made possible by others, from those who paid his tuition to those who believed in him enough to take the risk of giving him his first job, to those with the training and experience to safely fly a jumbo jet across oceans.

Sure, he had had a small part in it all, but as he sat in the pew, still grey with ashes and utterly clueless as to what was going to happen next, he was realizing for the first time Mankind’s dirty little secret: that every living, breathing individual was helplessly dependent; some were just allowed for a brief time to believe that they weren’t. They were all like children, running around the mall play area, doing their thing and oblivious to the watchful eyes of the adults who kept them safe.

At first to someone like Phil this was an extremely unsettling realization, but as he gradually began to let go of his pride and accept the notion, if was as if a rosy glow on the horizon was announcing a new day, and he wondered if the revelation he was experiencing was actually the beginning of a new stage of his life, one of enlightenment rather than despair.

And he wondered why, at that moment, the Cross that stood steadily before him seemed like the one remaining sign of stability in the world. Sure, he was helpless, and as he now knew, always had been. But somewhere, Someone wasn’t, and the fact that he was still alive made him dare to hope that that Someone just might care about him, might actually have been looking out for him all along …

From Sparrows, copyright 2011, Ann Aschauer

If you know someone like Phil, say a prayer for him or her today. I know I’m going to.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for the times we’ve been inclined to take the credit for the good things in our lives. We owe You everything – our thanks, our allegiance, our love, our worship, our very lives. Be glorified in us today, in Jesus’ name. Amen