Lately, I have been pondering the idea of divine help and guidance in my life, and what that looks like – what do I expect, want, or need?
Asking for Help (or Not)
I am often reluctant to pursue help, being an “I’ll do it myself, thank you” type of person. That can (okay, does) lead to situations where things simply don’t work, or end with an outcome that is much different than I hoped for.
At the opposite end of this spectrum are some who, when they pray / ask for assistance, without doing anything else, expect simply that the request is miraculously completed and handed to them (the proverbial ‘handed on a silver platter’).
Of course, life normally does not work at the extremes. But in the middle, life is still frustrating, confusing, seemingly mercurial in how it works. We wonder why this is the case, even (or especially) when we ask for divine assistance, and the ask seems to be met with silence, or almost worse, comes in sideways, providing help that feels unhelpful.
Our Focus
The answer is in what we are focused on. I recently read that sometimes the worst answer to a prayer would be to give you what you asked for. We are all slowly learning to look at our lives differently. Currently, often we measure life by the single event, or the single outcome, or the month, or the job. The life we see from that perspective is very small compared to the truth of our soul, or the sum of our life across the span of all the years (and beyond).
Consider that life is a classroom, where we are given a chance to learn what we excel at, how to expand our love, how to grow as a soul with others.
When viewed this way, the challenges we experience are now actually important. What would it be like if we truly had no challenges, and instead everything simply ‘worked’? How would we learn? How would we ever feel a sense of accomplishment? How would we understand or even experience growth, or increased strength? Eventually, we’d find ourselves lost with no opportunity to expand.
A New Understanding
In this context, what now does it look like, or what should we expect when we ask for help? When we ask our Angels (literally, messengers) or Guides (literally, guidance), we can expect clues, hints, awareness of our mistakes, and very loving support, but not a ‘done for you’ (mind you, miracles do happen, but they too create an opportunity to learn and trust).
Angels and guides have a focus from love that is about our growth and our ability to expand (think of teachers and coaches who challenge us, help us focus on our strengths). They will mentor us, but about what we are doing/learning, not random things that add no value to our experience.
Just Do
With all this, it’s still up to us to do; to lift the weight, to face the storm, to run each day to improve our stamina, to understand our skill, our heart, our soul. We still won’t get the prize without the effort. Will we miss? Yes, of course we will. But those misses are ways to learn – to understand what didn’t work, and to appreciate the rewards that much more when we get there.
All of this – learning to ask for help, understanding how it shows up, listening to guidance and our intuition – is part of our learning as well. Being more aware of challenges as a teacher, as a partner for our soul to expand, is all part of this.
Getting Guidance
If you would like guidance and support in your own life, for small challenges or larger themes of concern, I am here to help. Reach out, schedule a call, and we can work together to help you move ahead, to get to that prize. If you aren’t sure yet – just drop me a note and we can talk anyway and help you know more about how I can help.
