At my job, I assist people with disabilities in achieving independence. Together, we develop ways for them to complete daily routines, manage money, explore careers, and make friends. We call these “independent living skills.” But the people I serve will never be fully independent. Not because of their disability, but because of their humanity.

That’s because independence, as human–and American–as it is, is a fallacy.

No one is actually independent or self-made—from birth we need others. Yet “independence” is the prevailing jargon I use at work. At home, it’s why I teach my children to dress themselves and clean their rooms. And it’s the carrot we dangle for graduates who are looking to make something of themselves, no matter the economy. But these skills and aspirations are not going to make anyone independent—they are part of joining an interdependent world.

Let’s consider the ways humanity is interdependent, lest we chase after the mirage that is independence.

At Work

In every work setting, we cannot do our job if someone else doesn’t do theirs. For example, we depend on truck drivers to deliver the supplies we use at work. Or, when something breaks in the office, like a computer or fridge, we have to call in an expert. And we could never do our job if someone didn’t first train us.

Our workplaces are an ecosystem in which we function in interdependent trust. IFWE contributor and business professor Dr. Brian Baugus writes that without this confidence in one another, the process breaks apart: “All involved need to trust that others will perform as promised…that property will be protected, profits will not be confiscated, and should they be necessary, courts will be unbiased.”

As they say, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” The services and producers of the market cannot run without the simultaneous movement of every cog, an invisible hand (God’s?) turning the gears, and the lubricant of supply and demand.

In Economics

There is an economic term for this interdependency at work: comparative advantage. It’s what moves the market. Each person does what they are trained to do, which in turn affords others the time to do what they are trained to do. Like the repairman coming in for the fridge.

Comparative advantage has within it the idea of “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” But instead of swapping favors, it leads to flourishing. It’s a natural delegation of responsibilities where needs are met by people who have spent time honing their craft to offer it for the good of others. 

Economist Dr. Anne Bradley writes that God “created each of us uniquely with different sets of skills, talents, abilities, and propensities.” In God’s wisdom, she says, this is purposeful as they “bring us together to serve each other.”

Critics might look at this system as economic self-interest, or we can see it as a God-designed method of interdependency.

In Faith

We could liken the interdependency in the spheres of work and economics to that within the parts of a human body: The leg bone is connected to the knee bone, etc. You can’t have one without the other. Of course, Paul used this analogy first in the sphere of faith.

For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ… But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted… So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. (1 Cor 12:12, 18, 26-27 CSB)

From the beginning, humans were not made to live independently. God provided Eve to Adam and commanded that they multiply. Later, the early church so modeled the interdependency of a nuclear family to where “there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-35). The way to this interdependent lifestyle is to offer what we have for the good of others, first recognizing that what we have comes from God.

Dependence

Humanity is interdependent only because we are ultimately dependent on our Creator. Even the pagans knew that in someone greater than ourselves do “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:26-28). And because we know that every good gift comes from our Father above, believers recognize that everything we have we hold with an open hand (Jas 1:17, Job 1:21).

There is a paradoxical wonder to this dependence which allows Christians to willingly participate in the interdependence of the world.

New Testament professor Dr. Jeannine Hanger explains,

It’s in dependence that we gain the most freedom. Which in our culture is a very countercultural idea because we value independence, autonomy. And we think that is the most freedom. But…in God’s economy we’re made to need each other. Dependence on God is the ideal place to be.

All we have to offer in this world is given to us by God for the sake of others. Knowing this, how can we hope for even an ounce of independence?