Go Ask for the Jars

Reflection

Elisha told the widow to go to her neighbors and ask for empty vessels. Not a few. I've thought about what that must have required. She had to leave her house and ask people for something. They may have wondered what she was doing. She may have had to explain herself. People could say no.

What if she had said, “That's not me. I don't like asking people for things. What will they think? This is embarrassing. I'm too old for this. I wouldn't know what to say.” Those sound remarkably like the things we say today.

We can pray for God to change something while refusing to do the uncomfortable thing that could move us toward change. I've had to confront this in my own life. There have been things I avoided because I was afraid. I interpreted discomfort as evidence that I couldn't do something.

But I have learned that discomfort doesn't necessarily mean I can't. It may mean I haven't learned how yet. There is a big difference.

A skill can be learned. A conversation can be practiced. A script can be written. A question can be asked. And a “no” can be survived.

Imagine a waitress being afraid to ask a customer if they want coffee because the customer might say no. Or imagine her becoming devastated because the customer says, “No, thank you.” We would recognize immediately that the customer didn't reject the waitress. They simply didn't want coffee.

Yet we can allow fear of rejection to stop us from offering, asking, trying, applying, calling, or knocking. The widow had to go ask for jars. What are your jars?