Creative Commons user Marc Wathieu, edits mine
I have something you don’t. And you need that. So ask me for it.
Maybe it’s my lawn mower.
Maybe it’s a pinch of salt.
Or maybe it’s $100.
Maybe it’s some wisdom I have.
Maybe it’s a ride to the airport.
Learning to ask for help is vital to your spiritual growth.
But it’s awkward, isn’t it?
Culture would like us to believe that this is just a “guy” problem. That since guys don’t want to ask for directions, they’re the ones that feel it’s awkward to ask for help. But this awkwardness and self-dependent isolation isn’t just limited to the “y” chromosome.
Men and women deal with this.
Asking for help gives the appearance of weakness. Because, if you were stronger, you wouldn’t need help, right? You wouldn’t need money. Or advice. Or guidance.
Asking for help signifies you don’t have all you need for life. It screams, “I’m not independently self-sufficient.” It rails against our culture of independence and isolation.
Nobody wants to say that. Nobody wants to show the chink in their armor. Nobody wants to appear weak and vulnerable and exposed. Nobody. We want to appear to have more insight and more capabilities than we actually do, that we don’t need outside wisdom or influence. We especially never need correction.
But it’s our weaknesses that expose the way that God created us, because He didn’t create us for complete independence. He created us to be dependent on others.* He created us to live in need of encouragement. He created us to live in need of biblical counsel. He created us to live in need of sex advice. He created us to live in need of advice for our present circumstances.
I bet you need a pinch of salt right now. Or $100. Or life’s falling apart, and you need much, much more.
Love is an unbelievably transformational and redemptive force that we need extended to us. If we’ll just ask.
Time to get off your high horse and ask. You were created to do just that.
Time to say, “This is awkward, but…I need some help.”
*Yes, we’re supposed to be dependent on God. No doubt about that. But for the purposes of this post, depending on God alone becomes a ruse to really go at life alone. Because you can still hide your inadequacies.
