Asking for Help
January 9, 2012
My 17-month old grandson, Austin, is learning a few words, and his mother (my daughter Laura) is also teaching him some sign language. It is amazing how many words and gestures he is learning. He knows how to signal that he wants to eat (by making an eating gesture), and he knows how to spread his arms and say something that sounds like “All done.” He has even learned how to say, “Abu” which is Spanish for “gramps” or “granddad.” He learned that from his sister Brianna who lives in Puerto Rico with her mother, and she calls me “Abu.” So now little Austin calls me “Abu.” It is so cute!
Most cute of all, Austin has learned the sign language gesture for “help” (folded hands in front of himself with an up and down gesture), and he also verbally says, “Help.” Rather than fuss or throw a tantrum when he can’t do something, he very politely makes that gesture and says “Help.”
I wonder: why is it that so many of us who call ourselves Christians are reluctant to ask for help? Why do we try to live by the great American myth of the “self-made man” or self-made woman? Why do we think we must go it alone, rather than turning to God and to other Christians and asking for help? It is said that the only two real prayers are the prayer “Thank You, God” and the prayer “Help me, Lord.” Everything else we might pray is really just fluff or human pretense.
Jesus teaches us to “ask, seek, and knock” with the full trust that God will respond. Will God’s response always be exactly what we ask for? Of course not! We don’t always know what we really need, any more than my toddler grandson can know what he really needs. But we are told to ask, to seek, to knock – with the assurance God will respond. If we human parents (and grandparents) will respond to the request for “Help” from a small child, how much more will God respond to our “Help” prayers?
I can only conclude that my unwillingness to ask God for help is based upon the most basic of all human sin – pride. I want to believe that I can do it on my own. I want to think that I am self-sufficient. Sometimes I even try to do ministry on my own power and strength.
But the teachings of Jesus, and the model of little Austin, say otherwise. It is OK to ask for help. It is a powerful experience of faith to admit that I am in need of God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and guidance.
So, ask for help. And be prepared to keep on asking. Jesus also teaches about persistence, not to imply that God reluctantly answer our prayers, but because – as one great Quaker teacher has said -- “A season of prayer changes us.” It is not that our persistent asking changes God or makes God more likely to respond, rather it is that our persistent prayers change us – often deepening our dependence upon God, sometimes revealing to us our true needs, and typically discovering that God provides what we really need and not just what we think we want.
It all starts with asking, asking for help. It is one of the most basic prayers for a Christian.
Bishop Michael Coyner
