Few of us want to appear dependent: witness the rugged determination of many older people to resist support to which they're entitled; and the intense frustration of some who've spent a lifetime caring for others who now find it painfully difficult to accept that they're the ones who must be cared for.The Christian faith, like others, commends the good life as one spent in loving service of God and of other people.But it makes clear that the willingness to receive is just as much a part of what it means to be truly human.We enter the world totally dependent, and however confident, self-contained we might become, we do so only in relationship with other human beings and with gifts which are exactly that - abilities, skills, which are first given. And we never outgrow our need to receive love, human and divine. But it can take both humility and courage to recognise it.