Relying on Each Other.

A few weeks ago at church, Pastor Richard, was talking about community and relying on each other and he referenced the movie 127 Hours.  And since Mark already wrote a beautiful blog entry about this movie, I won't share too much about it.  But Peter and I did see this movie for ourselves a few weeks ago, and all I can say is WOW!  I am sooooo very thankful I knew how the story ended before going into it!  Aaron Ralston's story is powerful and you are rooting for him from the very start!  His will to live is contagious and so inspiring!  

But within his life he never asked for help.  He never felt as though he needed anybody, nor did he need to report to anyone to tell them where he was going.  So within the movie he has a revelation that he needs people and it is foolish for him not to tell anyone about his whereabouts.  And one of the best parts of the whole movie is when you hear him cry for help…he cries HELP..help me..i need help!! and within those moments you are so humbled by his plea.  And the film ends with Aron finally succumbing to the desire in his heart that he needs other people.

So Pastor Richard touched upon this concept in his sermon - We need each other and we can't grow without each other!  He went on to say that we need to be a community that demonstrates interdependency, that relies on each other, and we must swim upstream against the culture of individualism.   And this got me thinking about people in my life who are extremely independent and who just might have a hard time relying on other people.  

My grandma is certainly one of those people.  She also has a hard time asking for help.  And I wonder if it's because of her pride? or simply a generational thing? or an individualism thing?  Is it her way of declaring she can do it on her own?  Or is she simply proving a point by not asking for help?  I mean we are taught NOT to need anyone and not to ask for help.  And why is that??  Well…because we can do it all on our own right?

And while my grandma has a difficult time depending on others, she has an even more difficult time allowing others to do things for her.   One day I went over to visit her, and while I was there I changed the quilt that was on her bed.  I folded up the old quilt and put it into a little bag and I changed her pillow case - took about 5 minutes.  Another day I took her grocery shopping and boy did that tire her out!  At the end of the visit she was breathing so hard - I thought she might fall over from exhaustion - that took about 30 minutes MAX for her to find and purchase maybe 5 things.  And at the end of both visits she declared she wanted to pay me!  My own Grandma wanted to pay ME for visiting her, for helping her do things she couldn't do on her own, for gas money.   She even asked how much I made an hour at my current job and promised she would make it worth my time.  I quickly and loudly declared that I was simply offended and would never take her money because family should be able to rely on each other.  

Individualism and independence are the values that reign supreme in our culture.  But I think that as we get older we begin to lose a bit of our individualism and independence.  We begin to see that we do need each other.  We begin to see that we can't do everything on our own.  We begin to see family for what it really is - a place where we can rely on one another, a place where there is grace, mercy, endless patience and an overwhelming sense of love.