Thursday of the First Week of Lent: Ask, you will receive.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened…Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” — Mathew 7:7-12

Most of us have heard some variation of the adage, the road to recovery begins with admitting you have a problem. So often, we come to this point after self-reliantly laboring to find our own answers. Accustomed to independence, we exhaust every conceivable alternative before, aghast, we even consider reaching outside of ourselves for help. The American ideal of self-reliance casts a powerful shadow against the instinct to connect with others, with God, and thereby heal.

Jesus reminds us that it takes experiencing the limits of our own understanding to have the impetus to expose and ultimately own our vulnerability. It is in this tender stance, conceding our own unknowing, that we make space for God to dwell. In asking God, in seeking God, we engage our dependence on God. And only then, can know true freedom.

The Golden Rule, do unto others, gives us additional perspective here. Let us give God our presence, that we may in turn be illuminated by his.

“Lord, I ask you show me how obstacles manifest in my life to keep me from growing in your love. I ask that you sustain in me the will to seek your light. I know I am not meant to walk alone today. Give me the courage to shed what stands between us.”


reflected by Alma Morales Risse