Asking for help

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me,

for you are my tower of strength.

Psalm 31:4

Once again, I am caught. Trying to fix things. Trying to fix everything. Sometime during the last two years, I put a post-it on my desk that says, “I am not responsible for the pandemic.”  A good friend spoke these words to me, and at the time I thought I had better write them down and keep them close.

Clearly, I was right. Because I keep falling into the trap of thinking I must make everything better for everyone. And of course, when I can’t, I feel inadequate. This is a favorite ploy of the enemy: to lure me into a net of false expectations woven out of distortions of my own gifts. What is true is that I do have compassion for others, and I am good at fixing some things.  What is also true is that many, many things are not mine to fix.

My only hope when I am entangled in this web of distortion is to ask God for help. My only way out is to rely on the One who is the author of truth and life. And when I ask, the answer comes as sweet release from the stress of trying to be someone other than who God created me to be.

 

Image by Markéta Machová from Pixabay