“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” II Cor. 3:5
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” II Cor. 9:8
Whatever sufficiency, competencies or adequacies that we possess, these are merely the grace of God…His gift to us for the purpose of “abounding to every good work.” I have found that the world’s message of the self-made man who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps is a myth perpetrated by the god of this world, tempting us to seek the applause of men rather than the applause of the Audience of One. If the god of this world cannot overtly get men to worship him, his alternative temptation is for men to worship themselves, their body-type, their wealth, their (temporary) accomplishments. We are called to be co-creators with THE CREATOR, sub-suppliers of THE SUPPLIER, mini-distributors of THE DISTRIBUTOR. My viewpoint is that whenever we think of ourselves as self-sufficient long enough, we start believing that we are sufficient in ourselves…yet there is only ONE who is omni-sufficient…sufficient within Himself.
The adoption of verbal gerry-mandering emanating from government programs needs to be critically assessed to determine if such verbiage appropriately describes Kingdom values. Indiscriminate embracement of the term, self-sufficiency, is bolstered by the fact that government attaches money to things called self-sufficiency programs. Self-support, self-reliance, self-control…all indicate the responsibility of self as we relate to our larger communities. Trying to entice the poor and disadvantaged with the myth of self-sufficiency actually tears at the fabric of community, especially when the truth is that none of us are self-sufficient. With regard to “self”, our world may be better served as responsible constituents of our disparate communities to strive for self-control (self-governance).