Pastor's Blog: Looking for Some Help?
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The other night I was in one of those big-box stores that pride themselves on selling almost anything a customer could want. Indeed, the aisles were stocked with all manner of merchandise – from housewares to health products to sporting goods to entertainment devices. But because what I went into the store looking for was something that could have been placed in one of several such areas, I found myself walking all around as if I were on some sort of scavenger hunt. The longer I looked, the more anxious I became.
It got so bad that I even got to the point that I was ready to turn in my “man-card” and find someone to give me directions. But when I looked for a store employee, I was equally unsuccessful, which only made my level of anxiety and exasperation go higher. I then did the unthinkable for me; I came off my “high horse” and asked another shopper, who, after giving me a look of superiority I found humiliating, took mercy on me and steered me in the right direction.
As much as we hate to admit it, we all need some help from time to time. Of course, we’d rather not stoop to asking for advice directly lest we feel even more foolish for owning up to the fact of not knowing our way around life as we should. Perhaps that’s why when you go to a bookstore (which can also provoke no small amount of discovery angst) the largest section is usually the one labeled “Self-Help.”
In her recent book, Asking for a Friend, author Jessica Weisberg looked at the stories of sixteen people who made their names (and fortunes) doling out helpful advice to the American public. The stories range from Benjamin Franklin and his Poor Richard’s Almanac to Dear Abby and her syndicated newspaper column. Weisberg discovered that in all cases people were drawn to these types of individuals for guidance indirectly, which allowed them to meet deep-seated emotional needs for expert counsel without having to expose themselves for their ignorance or inability.
Of course, if we read our Bibles more, we might be able to get beyond the veneer of omniscience that we think we ought to possess. Throughout Scripture people find themselves in all kinds of thorny circumstances and situations, and the only one who is able to lead them out is God himself. Our all-knowing Creator is also our Redeemer and our Sustainer. Indeed, the notion of the Trinity points to how God has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so that we might approach Him directly in order either to find the answers in life for which we yearn or to know the strength that is necessary to live with the questions.
If this time in life happens to be one where you are in need of some direction, why not turn to God? After all, there’s no use wandering through each day aimless and lost. God has promised to show us the way to the place we are desperate to be and to discover as we go how He will never abandon us or forsake us, but through the presence of the Risen Jesus will be with us always, “even to the end of the age.”
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).