S56P5 – Ecclesiastical truths: designed for companionship
Ecc. 4:9-12
Two are better than one because they have a more satisfying return for their labor; for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and does not have another to lift him up. Again, if two lie down together, then they keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? And though one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
He was the first to make sure people knew he was a self-made man. He loved to regale others with his struggles and ingenuity in building a business from the ground up without anyone else’s help. Of course, the truth was much different than that. He might have started his dream alone, but it took many people to make it all happen. From employees to lenders to business mentors, there certainly was a team behind him the entire way, but these were only business allies. At the end of the day, this man was alone. He had abandoned building personal relationships for the sake of building his business legacy. When personal problems and illness struck, there was no one to listen or to help. The man who touted himself as being self-made eventually could not deny his need for others.
I think we can all see from our own experiences that God did not make people self-sustaining and self-sufficient. He made us to interact with and rely on one another. A person alone is incomplete because relationship is at the core of our existence. God created us out of love so that we could have a relationship with him. We are not some kind of ant farm He placed on the earth just to watch us live and die. He created us so that He can be a part of our lives, and He has designed us to be a part of one another’s lives. This concept goes hand-in-hand with the humility that God requires of those who follow him. If we are to accept his design, then we must recognize that He has not made any of us truly independent. It is his design that no one person stands alone but that we depend on one another and on him.
It is a simple fundamental truth that we need God, and we need people as well. On our own, we are too fragile and incapable. We live in an imperfect world filled with physical and spiritual dangers, and we do not have what it takes to save ourselves from that harm. To walk in the humility that God demands of his children is to accept this truth. It is no slight to us that we have such needs, and we should not see it as some kind of weak dependence. It is truly a blessing to share our lives and our struggles with one another and with God. He has designed us to need relationship because He knows the goodness that we can find there. Father, make us humble people who willingly and proudly depend on You and on one another.