What Radical Dependence on God Looks Like: An Excerpt from “Letters from Fawn Creek”

http://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/history_loggingminingranching_mining.html

One of the major themes of the Psalms is the importance of a radical dependence and restful trust in the grace of God to navigate life in a difficult, fallen world. God wants our hearts to be broken and contrite (Psalm 51:17); he wants us to acknowledge that apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Below is an excerpt from Letters from Fawn Creek where a fictional uncle gives advice to his fictional nephew on the importance of radical dependence on God by using an analogy from history to make his point:

Think of yourself as a young man growing up in Europe in the 19^th century.  You are frail and sickly and come from one of the wealthiest aristocratic families in the country.  You grow up in a socio-economic cocoon that both pampers you and insulates you from hard work and what common folk call “the real world.”An older man and adventurer that you respect returns from his year in America and regales you with splendid food, spirits and stories about the American West and the gold and silver mining that is going on there.  Feeling both stultified by the aristocratic subculture you inhabit and possessed by the wanderlust of youth, you ask your father to bankroll an adventure to look for gold with the older man in northern California.  At first your father says no but then reasons that “Time abroad would be good for you.  It would make you a man of the world and perhaps force you to grow up.”

In many ways the young man is the most unlikely candidate for a successful adventure.  He has significant physical limitations and his upbringing has not prepared him for the obstacles he will face in the coming year.  At the same time, he has a willing heart and seemingly unlimited financial resources to make it happen.  He has the money to pay for the expensive medicine that helps him physically.  He can foot the bill for the older man and take the best boat for the trip across the Atlantic.  When he arrives in New York, he can purchase any good and/or service he needs to make the trip to California successful, and once there, hire the best prospectors to find the gold.

We are like this young man.  We are very weak (“…without me you can do nothing”) but we have access to plentiful and amazing resources because “His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power” (II Peter 1:3).  Whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or Eastern Orthodox, we need to know that these “plentiful and amazing resources” are not some abstract concepts but are a Person living through us, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Remember, to gain a supernatural end you must have a supernatural means to achieve it.  You want to know Christ intimately, be conformed to His image, and hear Him say, “Well done you good and faithful servant,” but nothing less than a radical dependence on Christ living through you can achieve this.

If you liked this excerpt from Letters from Fawn Creek, you can purchase the book at this link:

https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781628542035