Are you completely dependent upon something?

That word has a lot of meaning doesn't it? 

"relying on or requiring a person or thing for support, supply, or what is needed; "dependent children"; "dependent on moisture..."

That's what the web says. And outside of drawing images of your W2 form at 11:45 PM on April 14th, what you are dependent upon says a lot about you.

Likely because of the rise in accessible technology and social networking one popular trend at the stroke of midnight on January 1st was what one person coined a "Social Media Cleansing". The theory was that a solid week of living with a decreased connectivity to things like Facebook and Twitter would tell you a lot about yourself. It would tell you how dependent you've become to showing and knowing life in relation to other people. 

In the grassroots rules for the social networking cleansing you had to "sign off" by telling everyone what you were doing. Seven days later you should evaluate yourself. This would probably be followed by (what one writer called) a "disturbing realization of what has become of our dependency".

I didn't participate.

It's not to say that I won't. And maybe I am too connected, but my immediate justification for connectedness to something like "social networking" is... wait for it...

Comparison.

I can think of a number of people who are more connected than myself. Even in most every category of addictive behavior, someone else does "addicted" better than me. Or worse than me. 

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But (to make a magic segue to spiritual things) what if I truly seek to find my dependence upon things of God, or of God?

I believe there are two sides to the dependence coin. Being more dependent on something creates less dependence upon something else. Think about (what starting a new habit) can do for your other habits. As a kid it was the example of less time on the bike because of more time with a new video game. As a teen it was less time with the guys because of a pursued interest in the fairer sex. As an adult it's more time with a giant to-do list and less time with your kids. 

It's easy for me to compare every area of my walk with God (with someone else) and end up feeling pretty good about myself. In fact, that's what I do when I want to justify my lack of dependence upon God.

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Time spent on one thing becomes dependence if we are not careful. And it affects every other area of our life. 

An earnest dependence upon the creator of the universe, upon His word and upon growing more deeply connected to Him results in the alignment of every other area of your life. It results in less time in addictive behavior and more time with real people. Less time with negatives that result in more negatives and more time becoming sanctified by a devotion to the all-perfect creator of the universe.

So my hope is that this year, I'll become more dependent upon my savior. More dependent upon His word. As I do that - I'll take a moment here and there to watch myself become a better husband, son, brother, uncle, friend, worship leader, person. And I'll be reminded of how far I have to go, but yet my increasing dependence upon the one who can get me there.