What do you hear when you ask for help?
There is a parable about asking for help. A fellow is told a flood is coming, and that he should take better shelter. He replies that he asked God to save him, so he isn’t worried. Later, waters start to rise, and his home is now surrounded by water. Soon, a boat comes to rescue the man from his home. Instead of getting in, he said “God will save me”. Then, as the waters rose more, a helicopter came to lift him off his roof. He waved them away, saying “God told me he will save me”.
Sadly, the man perished in the flood, and then went to Heaven. When he saw God, he asked him why God didn’t save him. God replied – I tried to, several times. I sent you warnings to leave, then sent a boat, and finally, a helicopter, but you didn’t accept the help I sent.
I’ve read this parable a few times and chuckled at obvious stubbornness (a trait I can firmly relate to). But recently, I realized a deeper, unspoken intent (as is the case with all parables).
Did the man do anything wrong? I see someone who refused to listen to the answer, because it didn’t match what he expected. He was looking for the hand of God to come and pick him up by the collar and set him onto dry land. He didn’t believe any different answer was possible, and so he missed the answer that was given.
We earnestly pray, or ask for guidance and help, and believe, correctly, it will be provided. We can trust, always, that what we ask is being heard and answered. The Law of Attraction is exactly firm and consistent – we get what we ask for. So, why do we sometimes miss it?
The corollary of the Law of Attraction is – we don’t get to decide how the result arrives. In the parable, the ask was simple and clear, but the man planned the how, and so missed what the answer was.
In our own lives, we often ask for many different things, with different emotions and beliefs. Some of the things we want even conflict. How are we to see answers when we are, like the man in the parable, looking for a specific outcome, or worse, asking for contradictory outcomes? How do we accept and trust the unknown ‘hows’ that firmly do result in answers to our very complex asks?
The way to cultivate stronger and clearer answers is always with gratitude. Seeing and acknowledging even the littlest of answers creates opening for us to trust, and see how brilliantly, how consistently, our asks really can be answered.
Being grateful opens us to options. Opening to options allows Spirit to give us what we ask in more delightful, exciting, and powerful ways. And even sometimes, creatively providing us answers that meet the contradictions we sometimes cling to.
