Musing - I can do it myself.

Hebraic Musing - I can do it myself.

If you have ever watched a very young child try to dress him or herself, you know how cute it can be.  Just like us sometimes, stubbornly insisting “I can do it myself.”  Picture the child painstakingly tackling each button as if trying to solve the world’s greatest problems.  Then sticking their head into the sleeve instead of the head opening and letting out an earth-piercing wail when they get stuck!  It’s easy to chuckle at the child insisting “I’ll do it myself,” but what happens, or doesn’t happen, when a 40-year-old or a 60-year-old approaches life with the same stubbornness — refusing help, even from God?

Now, most folks don’t intentionally shut out God’s help; they simply don’t ask Him for help.  They wrestle through the day’s problems on their own, often too busy to even take a moment to ask God for His assistance.  Let’s listen to sage advice from the Psalmist.  “The Lord is near to all who call on him, …  He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.   The Lord watches over all who love him,…”  Ps 145:18-19   How frustrated must our Father God feel while watching His children struggling to operate in the DIY mode?

Are we really saving time by not spending time in prayer?  And whose time is it anyway?  The Master of the Universe wants to work with us, so how much more efficient might we might be if we did things His way?

Did our Father God reveal His heart in Song of Songs when He told us how He views us, allegorically, in this long but lovingly beautiful passage?  “You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.  Awake, north wind, and come, south wind!  Blow on my garden that its fragrance may spread abroad.  Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.”  Song 4:12-16  NIV

The man in the story is talking to the woman; but in allegorical terms God is talking to us, His people.  Paraphrased, God is saying to us – “You are so beautiful, you have so much to offer, and I want to have a relationship with you, but you won’t let me in!”  When we don’t open ourselves to God, we are like a locked-up garden with so much potential inside; but we won’t open up to share it.  And the garden withers…

First – We need to open ourselves up to God, constantly calling on Him in prayer and asking for His assistance.  We need to make God part of our lives on a daily basis in every way.  How much more valuable could we be to Him if we did things His way.  Or, we can continue to listen to and obey Frank Sinatra when he sings ♫ I’ll do it my way…♫

Second – What would happen if we opened up to the other people in our lives?  This means being willing to ask them for help at times.  It might be hard for us to do and we might even feel like a burden; but the truth is that when we open ourselves up to another person we are allowing them to be part of our life.  Our relationships are strengthened as we share our lives with others.

We can’t do it all ourselves, and thanks to God we don’t have to.  But we must be wise enough and humble enough to let others in and not insist on “doing it myself.”

Points to ponder

Do we need God’s help in everything?

Can we give all our talents and treasures to Him? 

Does God want you to unleash your full potential?

Might other people actually want to help us?

♫  I need Thee, oh, I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee;.♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                      August 28, 2018

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

*  Inspired by and excerpted from Holy Land Moments – “I can do it myself” from IFCJ - Aug.16, 2018