Asking for Help for All the Things {not just the problems that are “big enough”}

by Sarah Defibaugh

We were heading out the door to a formal event and I was barely holding it together.   There were a lot of little things that were contributing to my fragile emotional state. Death by a thousand paper cuts, you could say.  Sleep and I were not on friendly terms.  I had handled an interpersonal situation poorly.  I was sweating and windblown from chasing the kids and not having had time to shower.  My husband was irritated with me.  And we hadn’t even made it to the car.  Minor things.  Dumb things. And yet I was on the verge of tears, feeling like a failure before the evening had even started. In my lap sat a gift from my mom, a clutch that I had hurriedly shoved a few items from my purse into before leaving.  I opened it to put on some lipstick on the way and saw this message, words I had missed before:  She is more Precious than Jewels. Proverbs 31:10.

Bam.  The God of the Universe cared that I felt insignificant.  Over minimal things.  Over things that I, in my own pride, thought:  I should be able to handle this stuff on my own!

In Bible study this week, we were discussing the story of the woman who had been bleeding (Luke 8:40-50).  This woman had spent the last twelve years trying to find a cure, but kept coming up short.  She snuck up behind Jesus and touched his coat and, just like that, the bleeding stops.  This woman received a blessing from Jesus and is recorded in the Bible for her faith.

Maybe you’re not bleeding outwardly.  Maybe it’s something that’s leaking inside of you that you’re minimalizing, thinking it’s not worthy of God’s attention, or others’ prayers.  It’s something that– like me–you think you should be able to handle on your own.  Maybe you’re like some of my friends {you know who you are!} who HATE to ask for help.  So you keep saying: “It’s not life-threatening… It’s pretty minor in the scheme of things…It’s fine…. ” You don’t want to appear weak, unspiritual, or needy.  You stuff it down, but it’s slowly poisoning you.

I can say with certainty that the enemy will do everything he can to stop you from reaching out for help. He will try to keep you on an island, not trusting others, not trusting God, and attempting to handle everything on your own.  By staying silent, by stuffing it all in, by telling yourself to just deal with it, you are depriving others from the blessing they receive by praying for you.  We are called to genuine community and it honors God when we invite people to live on our island and to share our burdens: our loads are lightened and we are refreshed.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed with big or little things this week, things that you’d like to stop carrying on your own, I want to encourage you to clutch a corner of Jesus’ robe with one hand, while reaching for a friend’s embrace with the other.  It’s ALL big stuff to Him.