Two are better
than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one
will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have
another to help.
- Ecclesiastes
4:9-10
There
are few everyday stresses which can match the instant anxiety produced by a low
battery alert. Whether on your phone, your laptop computer, your iPad, or some
other device, the sight of the battery icon suddenly turning red is enough to
send anyone frantically searching for a charger and an outlet.
The
trouble is, unless your device is brand new, one charge rarely seems to be
enough to get you through the day. If I want to be able to work on my laptop
throughout the day, I’ll almost certainly need to plug it in while I’m working
or it’ll die mid-morning. If Lindsey and I want to watch a movie on her tablet
after dinner, we’d better have charged it at lunch. And as for the ever-present
smart phone, sometimes it feels like it only has two locations: its charger or
my hand.
No
device can run on its own power forever—and no person can either. Nevertheless,
some mixture of pride, social pressure, and desperation makes us try to get
through life with as little help as possible. Somewhere along the way we
decided that individual accomplishments were more important than community accomplishments,
that going it alone was nobler than sharing the work, the credit, and the
rewards.
But
like an electronic device, we simply weren’t built to run on our own power
forever. God created us for relationship, both with Him and with our fellow
human beings. That’s why God gave the first man a partner in the Garden; that’s
why God’s promise to Abraham was that he would become a father to many; that’s
why Jesus passed his mission on to an assembly of followers—a church—instead of
a singular heir. As God says in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be
alone.”
One
of the greatest lies we’ve ever been told is that you can’t count on anyone but
yourself, that the best life is the one built solely on your own strength,
wits, and capabilities. The truth is that God calls us to give to one another
and receive from one another—He doesn’t want us to be a collection of
individual Christians, but one united church in Him. So as you go into the
weekend, ask yourself: am I reaching out to others, or pushing them away? Am I
willing to rely on what others have to offer, or am I stubbornly trying to go
it alone? Am I running on my own power, or am I drawing from a power greater
than myself?
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