Just Ask

When I was in high school, one of my favorite hobbies was making home movies with my friends. Most have been lost to time and obsolete technology. We filmed with handheld camcorders and edited with high-end software from the school library. It was a skill I honed well into college when my imagined future career was much different than where I am today. When I entered seminary, I never imagined that those old skills would one day be vital to my ministry.

I hope you have been tuning in to our weekly online worship services. Not because a lot of effort goes into them, but because it is important for all of us to maintain some sort of routine in all of this. We need time every week, every day even, to focus ourselves on God’s great love for us. If such a thing was true before the virus, it is even more true now.

These videos continue to teach me about taking care of myself and relying on God to provide. When we first started, I did everything. That first video on April 15th was literally all me. It was short, yet exhausting. After that, the videos got much more complicated, but I still was doing most of the work, overworking myself even more. It was all due to my inability to ask for help because I did not take the time to imagine how I could rely on others. But each week has been a little easier than the last because so many people continue to insist on helping. Our worship is once again truly a collaborative effort that takes the efforts of many who are in front of and behind the camera. I am so grateful for the ways so many of you have contributed to our unique, but temporary, style of worship.

In chapter 11 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples to ask God for help in their ministry. “Ask, and it will be given to you;” he says. “Search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus isn’t saying that God will stuff our wallets if we just keep asking, or that if we knock on the door of our dream house God will open it to us and hand us the keys. What he means is that God will always give us what we need to do God’s work - to care for ourselves and others. 

What do you need these days? Where are you spread too thin or falling short? What keeps you from asking for help? In my case, I neglected to pause and reflect about the tasks I could ask others to do for me. Maybe you are in the same place, or maybe you know what you need but find it hard to ask because of pride or shame or the fear of being a burden. You do not have to do everything. It is not all up to you. There are others, especially in this congregation, who are eager to be there for you. 

Go easy on yourself and others, ask for help when you need it, and remember that God has enough grace for each and every one of us.

Peace,

Pastor Chad