Almost every time I encounter Christians from outside the U.S., I am constantly struck by their level of dependency on God. Their faith is one of desperation. Desperate for God to show up, to provide, to move, to heal, to speak. And it inturn causes me to evaluate my own desperation.

I am grateful to live in one of the most powerful countries in the world, to experience all the freedoms and capabilities. Even amidst an economic recession, the average person in the U.S. has more money than a majority of the rest of the world.

Yet with all this freedom and capability there is the opportunity to lose my desperation and reliance on the One who created it all. In a country where I have access to almost anything I need, how desperate do I need to be? How desperate am I when “I can just make it happen”?

If I strip away the rationalizations,  the desperation for God in my life is often when it’s most  convenient. When disaster strikes, when a loved one is sick, when the accident happens, when the job is lost, when the pregnancy attempts stall, when life is in turmoil – those are the times I am desperate for God to do only what He can do.

Like my Christian brothers and sisters around the world, I want to have a daily desperation for Christ in my life regardless of the season I am in. I don’t want to lose perspective of the proper position God should have in my life. There truly is a gap between Creator and created. And regardless of how convenient my life is, regardless of how easy it is for me to pump my own gas, purchase my own food, put money in my 401k, fill my schedule and spend my time – all of it is truly His. His to provide and to lend to me for this lifetime.

In every aspect of life, may we be Christians who rely more on the Creator than we do on the created. May we be Christians who battle for daily desperation…not just when it’s convenient and we have no where else to turn.