How I Started Asking For Help

Just kidding.  I haven’t.  I am very self-sufficient and have been that way for as long as I can remember.  In this week’s talk, Pastor Blake continued the series on Moses and the help he received from those around him.  God put people in Moses’ life to help him lead the Israelites.  God also puts people in our lives because it is not good to be alone.  

When I think about how Aaron and Hur helped Moses, I think about a different kind of help – a physical doing of something rather than a spiritual type of doing.  For me, I can “do” all day long.  I am unlikely to ask for any help that requires a physical doing of something.  I cannot, however, “be” easily.  That’s where I need the help.    

I have a particularly close group of friends with whom I have grown very close in the last year when friends and human interaction had been severely limited.  I am so thankful for them.  I remember long seasons after college and thru my mid-30s when I wished for a best friend.  Just one.  Now I have many.  This obviously didn’t happen overnight.  Time, trust, willingness on my part to be vulnerable has been necessary. 

I will find myself during random times in the day thinking that I want to share some thought, failure, prayer request, funny meme, encouraging text or a check-in text with my friends.  (We have an insanely long group text.)   When I let down my guard to share my vulnerable parts, I believe that helps my friends to be brave to share as well.  And when my friends are vulnerable, that makes me even more brave.  If no one is brave, then no one is brave.   And we all suffer in silence.  So, I choose to be brave and vulnerable and show my weaknesses. I do this for two reasons: 1) to be a good friend; and 2) to not fall into old, familiar, patterns of behavior – acting as if everything is fine. My friends listen as well as gently prod.  We let each other be a Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law), to each other, pointing out what is “not good.”

When my friends are brave in their vulnerability, I make sure they know that I think/believe/feel that it’s an honor to be the recipient of the vulnerability.  It’s easy to be a friend to someone who doesn’t let you help them carry their burdens, but it’s also shallow and unfulfilling.  I’d much rather have a deep friendship that requires work.  

I haven’t really mentioned God in this, yet Jesus is the key to all of this.  My friends are my sisters in Christ.  We love Jesus, and we love each other.  That’s our starting point.  We know that where two or more are gathered, God is with us.  We know that we are meant for community and invest in each other.  We know that we are not meant to be alone, so make time for each other.  We know that corporate worship is important to our walk, and make that a priority.  We love because God first loved us.  

I can’t help but think about Moses, in his early years, if he had anyone close to him, advising him?  Did Moses have anyone to talk to about his frustrations and not feeling that he felt included with the Egyptians or Israelites?  I would have to guess that the answer is no.  Perhaps if he did, his first forty years would have looked a lot differently.  But no matter what choices we make, even if we completely blow it, God can still use us.  We are never too far gone.  If you missed this past Sunday’s talk on Moses and Friends, or any others in the series, please click here.