Help: I Like It, I Love It, We Need Some More Of It

"I need some help." Full stop. Blog over. See you next drop.

Back to that one liner. I rarely lead conversations with one liners like that, and maybe others around me do and I am ignorant or I hang in the wrong crowds (or a perhaps a mix of both 😅 ); but, "help" is something we all need, yet hesitant to acknowledge. We typically only lead with "help" in dire need. But, don't we all need help somewhere? It goes without saying, but bears explicit mention. I am human. We are flesh. We cannot really do much on our own except sin. We are weak and need help somewhere (and frequently in multiple areas). We are not enough and meant to be self-sufficient, and that is okay.

I have had a lot of help. And it has benefitted me greatly, often without me realizing: allowance to play and pursue my love of cars as a youngster, encouragement in gifting in high school, tutoring and scholarship in college, professional, spiritual, and chiropractic counsel as an adult. And that does not even begin to account for support from friends and the feedback from unfriendly fire😒.

Help & Its Amorphous Nature

A new acquaintance recently affirmed me for taking good care of my myself after mentioning some of the current support structures I have in place for regular life upkeep and maintenance. Initially, I was a little confused and sheepishly, I kind of laughed it off. Being a brash dollar and cents guy, I kind of think of some of these supports as time or money drainers, but that is not true. These are areas I need "help" and employ my time and money to support. I just openly listed how I get it.

In this season, I have been reflecting on the unprompted help I receive on a daily basis. In journaling, I have realized I get a moderate bit from unexpected circumstances. The volume of live commentary I get inside and outside of work often adds a rich soundtrack for me to build and reflect on. And it has helped me process and see life differently.

What would it look like if we led with the help we need? How would our conversations, our communities be different? What level of depth, honesty, rawness, and vulnerability would be present? What if we identified with others not just on the basis of positive similarities but in areas where we need help? I am betting our dire needs would still be there, but we might be better equipped. I'm betting we'd be healthier and more faithful to who we are created to be. I think we also might have better relationships because we'd be better and more fully known for who we are.

What if knowing where you need help (call it "limitations") became a defining characteristic, a family distinctive? Maybe we should reframe "self-awareness" more squarely as "help."

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