Helping Hands

Help is often ironic.  It is hard to admit that one needs it until someone actually gives you a gift that is unknowingly accepted.  While some can and do see it as a sign of weakness, experience continues to teach me that acknowledging and asking for help is often a clear indication of maturity, strength, and community.  Along life's journey, one finds help in the oddest places, from wells of hope that are unimaginable, and at times that trigger a fundamental “why”. 
Even as I write these words, my mind darts from image to image.  I find myself catching glimpses of God's angels are work in my life.  The scenes are, for the most part, incredibly innocent.  There is no life and death at stake, yet my heart is torn beyond visible recognition.  There are rarely any hysterics, though the underlying despair is one that will haunt me for some time.  There is rarely a sense of urgency, though I know my soul is begging, screaming for help. 
An old friend offers a simple word of encouragement and I find myself holding Hope's hand.  A trusted confident stays close and I find my soul knowing that it belongs.  A loved one is honest and I experience of sense of what God experiences when we turn back to Divinity.  I am reminded that we are all children of the same God.  We are members of Divinity's family.  I know truth of an old observation; “foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship.”  (Isaiah 60.10a)  In this state of awareness, I know you and I are commissioned to be God's hands in someone's life. 
Helping another is not as simple as it might sound.  It is about giving, not being acknowledged, accepted, or appreciated.  It is about doing what is right, even when the receiver is anger, distracted, or self-destructive.  It is about acting in response to the Spirit, not doing things on our own.
Today is a great window – to help make the world a better place, to live.