Asking for help is not natural. Or at least it doesn't feel
natural to me. I have gone through most of my life trying to do things alone. I
don’t mean like I won’t ask for help on everyday things, I’m practical. It’s
just the hard stuff that I hate asking for help with. I like to think that my intellect,
or personal fortitude, or whatever, will get me through any trouble that I am
in. Somehow I can think and reason and get through or overcome any obstacle. The
problem is even intellectually I know that I can’t always do things alone, but I
feel like I have to. I must maintain the bravado of being a strong, carefree, “has
it all together” kind of person. That’s what I tell myself, that is what the
world tells me I must do, I have to.
Tonight I am saying no. I will not try to face all of my
problems alone. I will fight against the way of thinking that the world has indoctrinated
me into. Tonight, I asked for help. I asked for prayer from people who have
been great encouragement to me. I asked for prayer! I embraced the Church and
said “I am not strong enough, I need your help! Pray for me!” and my brothers
in Christ responded with a resounding “God is stronger than sin, I will pray
for you. Will you pray for me?” They did
not tell me how weak I was. They did not laugh at me. They did not condemn me. Instead,
they told me that they too struggle with things. They told me that they too
need prayer. They told me that they have, just did, and would again pray for me.
Tonight, we said no. we embraced each
other as brothers.
I am broken. I am
weak. I cannot do things alone. I cannot beat back every single struggle that
the world has thrown at me alone. So I won’t pretend that I can, I won’t
pretend that I should have to. Tonight I asked for help. Tomorrow I will need
help again. I know that God is stronger that any sin that I have been tempted
with, he is stronger that this world. He will and does provide freedom from
sin. I know that tonight I cannot be
strong. I know that tonight I have to be weak, for in my weakness I allow God
to be strong. I ask for his strength, and He is much stronger than I.
Friends, if any of you see this, I ask that you ask for help
when you need it. Ask God. And ask your brothers and sisters in Christ for help
as well, they will give it to you. And now I ask, will you pray for me? That I remember
who I am in Christ? That I can remember
that I have been set free from sin and death and have been given new life? I
pray this for you.
“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall
fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:29-30
