When I got a new pair of glasses, I let myself get talked into a special coating that minimizes glare. It also maximizes my fingerprints, I manage to acquire constantly shoving my glasses back on my nose.
Removing these prints requires a special cloth – not any old soft cloth – but a super duper micro-fiber cloth that magically eliminates the smudges that often blur my vision.
Some might say that having faith in the God of the Bible is a bit like getting talked into an unnecessary coating on my glasses – it’s troublesome to maintain, and gets in the way of simply living life.
But when was living ever simple?
At some point, life always gets complicated – unmanageable, crazy, painful, confusing, scary — blurry. When is it too late to ask God for help?
Alice Howland, the haunting heroine of Still Alice,1 went into a church, seeking solace, help, answers in combating her diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. She entered an empty church – and saw a banner declaring God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
She couldn’t be in more trouble and wanted so much to ask for help. But she felt like a trespasser, undeserving, unfaithful. Who was she to ask from help from a God she wasn’t sure she believed in, or a church she knew nothing about? (Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, page 98.)
She waited: no one came, and she got no answers in that empty church.
Her question haunts me: Can skepticism, disease, or ignorance, block out God’s help?
I’m gonna say, No.
Take all the time you need to ask, but hurry up. God’s been carrying thee and me since before we were born – and He has no plans to drop us. (Isaiah 46:4)
He’s waiting to answer questions beyond even our ability to ask. (Jeremiah 33:3)
In these crazy uncertain times, when everything looks meaningless,2 I too resist asking for God’s help – for I am a trespasser, undeserving, and unfaithful.
He says, though, keep asking. So, I do – for daily, I need a hiding place, help and strength! And I want to hear the words Naomi, Ruth’s formerly bitter mother-in-law, heard: He will renew your life, and sustain you in your old age. (Ruth 4:14-15)
I pray for women and men like Alice, and their families – it’s never to late to ask for God’s help – and it’s never too late to obey Him. (Matthew 11:27-30)
Thanks for reading — God bless you dear visitor – especially if your vision of God is blurred, or marred, or even absent. Who are you to ask God anything, you might wonder — You are the one whom the Shepherd seeks! (Luke 15)
Footnotes
1 How Do You Spot Alzheimer’s? The Neuroscientist Behind Still Alice Explains
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