help

So, apparently, God helps those that help themselves. But what if you can't help yourself? What if you have been put in a situation by someone and that someone is the only one that can get you back out of it.

Years ago, when my sister was about 6, my best friend and I put her in a big rubber trash can and put the lid on it. We stuffed her in there, closed it up and carted her around in it. She volunteered so it wasn't like we put her in there against her will. But eventually, she wanted to get out. And she couldn't. She needed our help to pry off the lid and lift her up. In hindsight, I realize that she could have suffocated in there and that was a foolish and dangerous game to play. The point is we put my sister in a helpless situation and we were her only way out of it.

Sometimes, we allow others to impact our lives in such a way that we find ourselves in helpless situations. We give others the ability or the control they need to put us in a place that we can't escape without their help. At times, those people will reach out a helping hand and pull us back to safety. But what happens when those folks just turn a deaf ear to our cries for help? What happens when stopping life for a moment to assist is inconvenient for them? What happens when they have decided that you are not worth helping or you're not a priority for them? What happens when they walk away?

You are left, trapped or drowning or suffocating or whatever sensation you feel... And they go on about life, unaffected. How do you help yourself? And how do you ever let anyone in again?