It Is Not a Good Thing To Be a 'Do-It-All.'

We often want to do everything ourselves, but that is a mark of false pride. Even what we owe to others belongs to ourselves, and that is part of our own lives. And when we calculate just how much we owe to others, it is not only un-Christian, but useless. What we are in ourselves, and what we owe to others makes us a complete whole.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The idea of independence is good but is often confused.

We value learning skills and we can often advance our independence by learning something that we didn't know before. But this is an inevitably finite goal. I cannot learn everything - just because I am finite and human. And if I did know everything what would that mean?

It is not a good thing to be a 'know-it-all.'

It is essential to our humanity that we need other people. To learn from them. To get their assistance. Of course this is essential to ourselves - to our well-being. Without love and assistance from others our lives would be empty. But it is also important because our needs create opportunities for others to contribute - needs give meaning to all our lives.

It is not a good thing to be a 'do-it-all.'

What we value is having control over our lives - freedom. Even this is not an unconstrained freedom. Freedom is an expression of self within the context of our community - it is a form of creativity which requires a medium for expression - things which we can control, but also things which are outside our control, but which provide the fabric of self-expression.

As Bonhoeffer observes the goal of independence, understood in a shallow way - me doing everything for myself - is not only false it is a sin. As Bonhoeffer also sees the sin is a failure to acknowledge that what we owe others is part of ourselves - and to deny the reality of this debt is a kind of ingratitude.

Understood in a deep way - me being myself, expressing who I am, with support from others is true and is how we become a "complete whole." It is also a way of valuing each other, it is at the heart of mutual respect and community life.