Over-dependent on God?

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Rafael1226

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Hello, the other day I was listening to one of the Catholic shows (unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the show, but I was listening to Ave Maria Radio), and the host was giving a list of the things people can become over-dependent or addicted to, and he listed God as one of them. That really took me aback, as I thought we were supposed to allow ourselves to be completely dependent on him. Did anyone else listen to that show? Am I misunderstanding the host’s point?
 
Rafael1226 said:
Hello, the other day I was listening to one of the Catholic shows (unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the show, but I was listening to Ave Maria Radio), and the host was giving a list of the things people can become over-dependent or addicted to, and he listed God as one of them. That really took me aback, as I thought we were supposed to allow ourselves to be completely dependent on him. Did anyone else listen to that show? Am I misunderstanding the host’s point?
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They may have been referring to things like praying to pass your exams but not studying.
 
Yes. There’s the story of the man whose town was being flooded. He stood on the porch when the evacuating vehicles came through and said, “I’m OK. God will save me.”
The water rose and he went onto the second floor of his house. A group of people came by in canoes and asked him to come along. “I’m OK, God will save me” he replied.

Later the water rose and he went onto the roof of the house. A helicopter rescue came by and the man came down and asked him to get in the bucket. “I’m OK, God will save me”, he answered.

Well the water kept rising and the man was swept away, and found himself at the Pearly Gates with St. Peter and the Lord.
“how did this happen, Lord?” asked the man. “I thought you’d save me!”
“I don’t know” said the Lord. "I sent an evacuator, and a canoe, and a rescue helicopter. . "
 
Yes, I think the host meant waiting on God to accomplish what God has given us the grace to accomplish. We can do nothing without God, but that doesn’t mean we do nothing and then blame God when nothing gets done. We don’t wait for God to “send a sign” concerning every prudential decision we have to make.

This shows up in all of the things that people expect out of a co-dependent relationship: expecting God to do all the giving (or that we’re the ones doing all the giving, because we are the servants), expecting that God will never say “no,” expecting God to cover for the natural consequences of our sins or failures, feeling we cannot be honest with God lest we “fall out of favor” by being admitting how we really feel, and so on. I think people who have had co-dependent or even toxic relationships with other people, especially in their families of origin, can project their earlier experiences onto God as what a relationship with God is going to be like or ought to be like.

I would take the host to mean that, given the context you provided. In other words, there is no relationship that cannot be contaminated by our own addictive or co-dependent thinking.
 
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PetraG said:
Yes, I think the host meant waiting on God to accomplish what God has given us the grace to accomplish.
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I love the way you put this. I am clipping it as a reminder to myself when I am not relying on myself to the extent I should. I think it captures it perfectly!
 
I would say there’s no such thing as being over-dependant on God.
Actually in my own experience the more I give to Him the more of His miracles and wonders I see. Although I would recognize the arrival of the helicopter as one such miracle
 
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