What's wrong with being self-sufficient?

Our culture glorifies the self-made man, the man who stands on his own two feet. The rugged individualist is an ideal that is embedded deeply within the American psyche. And up to a point, it’s an ideal worth pursuing. A man has responsibilities. To himself, to his family, to his associates, to his community. If he wants the respect of other men, he does his best to meet those responsibilities capably and cheerfully, even when, maybe especially when, it means sacrificing himself.

I never had too much trouble trusting God for my salvation. That seemed like a no-brainer: I need to be saved, I can't save myself, ergo I need a Savior. But I was programmed to take ownership of most everything else and work it out on my own. That's what a man does, right? Manage your household. Provide for your family. Be the spiritual leader of your home. I was the embodiment of the rugged individualist - showing up, doing my part, reliably meeting my responsibilities and then some. As long as I could maintain an illusion of sufficiency in those things, I never really had to trust God for them. Then something happened that rocked my world.

The Reader’s Digest version would go like this: A man works with the same company for 25 years, gets fired suddenly, is out of work for a year, and finally lands a job with a Christian radio station.
 
If this was the Hallmark Channel, it would go like this: After a year of desperately seeking employment, a man gets unexpected help from his wife, his daughter, and a pastor to land a job he never dreamed of working in.
 
The “based on a true story” made-for-TV movie screenplay would emphasize how close the man’s family came to impending financial ruin, before the just-in-time intervention of a faithful God.
 
While those accounts would not be altogether inaccurate, none would tell the story we’ll hear this week. As it turns out, the jobs and the money were never the point. Join us at the Lodge, Friday July 6 at 6:15 AM, to hear the real story.