Take a look at that poster print for a second. Now, question–when’s the last time you asked for help? The last time you were honest or transparent?
I love that quote a ton, because it reminds me what is truly important and how following Jesus turns particular values and systems completely upside down.
What’s fascinating is the actual definition of strength. When I looked it up, one of the definitions was a good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing.
Would we admit that asking for help is a “beneficial quality” or a “good attribute?” If so, then it’s certainly, even by dictionary definition, a strength.
We give it it’s power. The defition of weakness is morphed and transformed by a community, a collective of people, a group that exhibits it. If a bunch of men say crying is a weakness (which sadly, our culture has), then it becomes one. If we say as a culture that asking for help is a weakness, then it becomes one.
But let’s recognize we have power to turn definitions on their head as followers of Jesus and change the tides. If a group of people realize they have nothing to hide, because their worth is in the One who loves them completely, then asking for help becomes not a weakness but a gateway to joy. And doing that will cut against culture, it will make you stand out, it will look different but maybe in that difference you might begin to change the culture and make create a movement of grace. You can only be fully loved when you are fully known, and every time you ask for help you are becoming a little bit more known, and in turn becoming a little bit more loved.
**PS you can pick up that poster from my store here**
What do you think makes asking for help so hard? Do you have any encouraging stories about one time you asked for help?