As I stood on the doorstep with my arm lodged in a letterbox trying to grab the keys to open the door, I made a mental note – there has to be a blog post in this.

The irony of turning cat burglar in an attempt to rescue the dog I’d managed to lock inside the house was not lost on me.

As I look at it now it was a day full of fails, highlighted only by the fact my awesome friend Katie had come to visit from Ireland for the weekend. She was now freezing in the car taking photo’s of the epic ginger fail that was unfolding before her eyes.

Stood on that doorstep I became determined that I wouldn’t be moving until I’d open the door. Determination turned to stubbornness as I rooted through the car for various implements to jab through the letterbox in an attempt to reach the lanyard attached to the  keys so I could yank them out of the key hole.

Koby, my chocolate Labrador Christmas companion, sat in his basket completely unfazed by the drama, every now and again he’d get up and retrieve dropped items that I’d accidentally dropped through the letterbox.

It took almost an hour, a bruised and grazed arm and the fact that I was freezing for me to concede and google the number of a locksmith. I didn’t realise it mattered so much to me to be able to solve a problem myself until that moment.

£68 and 20 minutes later the locksmith had not only arrived, he’d used two minutes of that time to prop open the letterbox and use a gadget to turn the key in the lock. In an embarrassingly short amount of time he managed to do what I’d been failing at. Then hey presto – door open and we are greeted by slobbery dog hanging out in the doorway.

How many times in life do we get so fixed on trying to solve something ourselves we forget that help even exists? While standing on the doorstep of life with our hands through the letterbox of experience we refuse to turn around and just face the fact that we need help.

I think it’s because for so many of us asking for help comes with a cost, the cost of our pride. Since that experience on the doorstep I’ve learnt that asking for help isn’t a failure, it’s an incredible strength. Allowing someone into your life to help you achieve something outside of your gifting is far from a weakness – it’s wisdom.

Time and time again I am faced with impossible things in this world and I have to ask for help. That help isn’t always from others around me. It’s mostly from my ultimate helper and guardian. I have come to understand that some of the most powerful prayers begin with ‘Lord God, I can’t do this on my own, but with you I can do anything!’

So don’t walk this path alone, don’t be afraid to ask, it’s not weakness – it’s wisdom.

Paul writes it perfectly in 2 Corinthians when he says this:

 

(The Lord said..) “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10