Getting in Touch with Your Needs

We commented in class today how hard it is for us to receive, whether it is compliments, gifts, or assistance. We willingly offer help and are grateful for the opportunity to be of assistance, but many times we set aside our needs or walk away rather asking for help for ourselves. It may not be intentional, but rather because we don't even know what our needs are, or that we have buried them. It takes some soul searching to dig them out. I'm a pleaser, and it is hard for me to see that as a need, an incompleteness in my life, it seems like it should be an attribute. I've still got a lot to learn about myself, about my needs, and how to ask for help.

You are not who you want to be. You are not who you hope to be. You are not the person that others think you are. You are the person who is defined by what you choose and what you truly desire and what you really think and believe. That’s who you are. If you want to begin any kind of spiritual or metaphysical or personal journey, that’s where you should begin. You should begin by owning who you are.
- Gordon Atkinson (real live preacher)

Being aware of our incompleteness orients us toward God and his ways. It draws us to the spiritual where he awaits us with love, truth, support and all we need to grow and repair. This is called spiritual poverty. The more broken we are the more God can grow us up. Realizing our condition before God is an overwhelmingly emotional experience involving feelings such as dependence, grief and remorse. Psychologists call this being integrated. That is, having the heart and head in alliance with each other. God reminds us time and time again that he likes neediness.
- Cloud-Townsend "How People Grow"

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are the great care giver, the great physician. You offer to make us whole if we bring our needs to you but we are a proud people. We honor those who are self-reliant and independent. We have learned to gloss over our needs or conceal our imperfections so that anyone can walk past and not give us a second thought of concern. God, are you sure you like neediness?? Do you know what that means? We will come to you battered and broken, unable to fix our own bruised egos. We may come ranting and crying, not calm and prepared. How does our church define its neediness, its need of repair? We come to you as needy individuals and we come to you, a gathering of needful people, seeking your healing. Let us be humble and gracious to allow others to serve and offer gifts in their response to love. Amen.