I DON'T Want to Make It On My Own

I’ve recently decided I don’t believe in the phrase or the idea of “Making it on your own.” Don’t get me wrong; I am in full support of success or “Making it,” but with the tag of “… on your own,” it seems so anti-communal*. But I guess that’s the point isn’t it? Whether we’re leaving our parents home or graduating college, we’re expected to come to a point in life where we do not need anyone but ourselves.

So many of my friends graduated college with little or no plans and went off into their futures. Some are very successful and while others didn’t do much at all besides fall into more debt, but one cause of distress I find common among most is that they miss college life, specifically, they miss everyone being around, the community. They struggle with loneliness, the lack of true deep connection. In the silence or the place of life where chaos momentarily slows, their need for connection surfaces. What surfaces is the fact that people simply need.

What is about graduating college that makes people feel like they need everything figured out or that they need to be complete, the super adult**? I agree with Tyler Durden (Fight Club) when he says, “Never be complete, stop being perfect.” In recognizing and accepting our imperfection, our incompleteness, we begin to understand our need for others. Simply put, we need. We need God, we need each other- we need relationship.

In our imperfections, God’s strength is made perfect. In our brokenness, true community is formed and strengthened. I want to succeed. I want to make it. But what I don’t want to do, what I think I'll be tempted to do, is make it on my own.

I'm broken, but aren't we all?

Ernie

* Anti-Christian?

** We pretend not to need anyone or that we got everything figured out. "Blessed is the man who realizes his need for God, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Mathew 5:3