Help

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

    where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.  Psalm 121

Surely God is my help;

    the Lord is the one who sustains me  Psalm 54

If "Sorry" is a word that we find difficult to wrap our minds, hearts and lives around...."Help" is not much easier.  We live in a world where the narrative is that you need to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, where accepting help is seen as some sort of moral or person failure, and where asking for help makes our stomachs feel all queasy, like we rode the Tilt-a-whirl at the fair too many times.

We don't like to depend on anyone else.  Because, to be honest, we don't like to be beholden to anyone else.  We  don't want that hanging over our heads.  So, we do everything possible to make it seem like we are self made, which is physically impossible.  We have parents who are the ones who made it possible for us to exist and take in air.  With our first breath we are already beholden.  Not to mention the years they provided a roof over our heads and food on the table.  I was educated in the public school...there at least 50 teachers who I am beholden to.  And, of course, working in a church means that I am fully dependent upon the generosity of donations to pay my salary.  Lots of people have and lots of people do help me.  Truth be told, you could say the exact some time.  CEOs need the help of workers.  Teachers need the help of students.  Paul McCarty was right, "We get by with a little (or actually A LOT) of help from my friends (and others too numerous to list...or at least to sing about)"

Scripture is full of passages about the help God offers us.  Sometimes this is tangible help...other times it is just a strength swirling within.  Often times...because we don't like be beholden to anyone....we think think of our relationship with God in terms of a transaction.  That we 'ought to' give money to get God's help or we need to pray the right prayer to get God's help...that somehow we earn God's help.  The image here is of a vending machine, we want something so we have to smooth out and will the dollar into the machine to get what we want.  Friends, God is NOT a vending machine.  Even though my salary does need gifts, God does not.  God desires a relationship, not manipulation or calculation on our part.  God desires our whole lives, not just our wounds.  God desires our honesty, not our speeches.  

That is why "Help" can be such an honest prayer.  But too often that is ALL our prayers are.  Help this person, help us, help this situation.  That is why I found Brian McLaren's list so powerful.  Even though "Help" might be #1 on our most requested prayer list...it did not appear in Brian's until #5.  There is something about starting with acknowledging God's presence in my life first.  There is something about giving thanks.  There is something about noticing the wonder and awe around me.  There is something about noticing my own culpability in brokenness (see "Sorry" post) that then puts into proper perspective my need for help.

I invite you this week with your prayers to do simply that.  Start by noticing God.  How do you notice God?  Then give thanks for the blessings.  Then go deeper with those blessings, be in awe.  Then notice places and times and words that have hurt and hurt others.  Then, name honesty the help we need.

Brian McLaren writes that often our cries for help involve changing someone else or the situation, without acknowledging our own brokenness.  We cry for help when we are late and stuck in traffic, rather than asking for help to be more aware of time/not try to cram so much into our lives.  We cry for help to change the annoying co-worker, rather than asking for help to be more understanding.  As you ponder prayerfully help this week...look over how you are asking for help and what you are asking for help with.  

As you do...may the traces of God's grace move in your life in ways that give us strength to ask for and accept a help that makes our lives whole.

Blessings ~