Ask and You Shall Give

People don’t ask for help because they don’t want to inconvenience others. What if the opposite were true? What if the opportunity to help you were a gift?

This weekend, I was blessed to attend the Festival of Friendship, a weekend retreat put on by my local chapter of Communion and Liberation. One of the most beautiful and powerful things about the weekend was when participants shared how one of the founders of this event who had recently died of cancer had impacted them. One woman shared that Suzanne had a peculiar knack for asking favors in a way that benefited the person being asked more than it did herself. The woman gave an example of being asked to put together an exhibit about a particular poet. She said that in preparing the exhibit, which she never finished, she read lots of poetry and the growth that resulted from this was a tremendous gift. 

All this got me thinking that perhaps there is an art of stewardship of requests. We can be mindful of what we ask others to do in a way that benefits them. Secondarily, I realized that perhaps having this knack doesn’t matter. In my experience, when people ask me for help, I almost always benefit from the fulfillment of their request, perhaps even more than they do from my service. 

This week, I invite you to ask: 

If it were true that my asking for something from someone was a gift to them, what would I ask for and from whom? 

God bless, 
Dan