Follow Directions and Ask for Help

by Brad Bramlet

How do you define success in your life? There are, no doubt, as many definitions as there are people reading this article but, after a gazillion blows to my head with a metaphoric 2”x4”, I have come to realize that the path to success isn’t as broad as the definition. Living a successful life requires only two actions. Here they are.
Are you ready?
1. Follow directions
2. Ask for help.
Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Then why do we try to live like we can handle everything on our own? We have a God that is waiting to hear from us. We so often just chose not to consult Him.
Sometimes the best way to be shaken out of our denial, or maybe pride, is to come to the end of ourselves. To fall flat on our faces. To fail miserably. Then, finally, we can admit the truth—our way doesn’t work.
One day, about twenty years ago, this point was driven into my heart on a little pink bicycle. It was my daughter’s fourth birthday. I bought her a dream with training wheels. Pink and white tassels streaming from the handlebars, a white banana seat flecked with metallic flakes, everything any little girl wanted in a bike came in that box. All I had to do was put it together. Six hours and a pile of spare parts later I was ready for the big reveal.

She was so excited. The more her excitement grew the more my heart filled up. It was a Kodak moment for sure. I held the back of the seat until she was riding steady and then, reluctantly, I let her go. The birds were singing. The sun was shining.
She turned and yelled, “I love you, Daddy!”
“I love you too sweetie!”
I felt like the best dad in the world for a moment. Then she hit a crack in the sidewalk. Her left training wheel flipped up to twelve o’clock and the right one flew off into the street. She was going uncontrollably fast by this time and had no way to stop—I hadn’t shown her how to use the brakes. Her bike was wobbling over the uneven sidewalk. She stopped alright. She ran head on into a gravel pile.
I was trying to get to her so fast that it felt like slow motion. When I finally reached her, she stood and turned to me, tears running into the blood from her lacerated chin, and her next comment showed more intelligence and maturity than I had exhibited all day.
“Daddy, can we call Grandpa now?”
She knew her grandpa was great at putting things together. So we called him. The
first thing he asked for was not a tool—he had his with him in his red metal box with his name on it. No, he asked for the directions! The guy who could put anything together wanted to read the directions. To this day that bike is still holding tight.

I could have called my dad first and saved my daughter and I a lot of time, pain and regret. But I wanted to handle it on my own. Why do we believe that winging it on our own beats admitting we need a little help when we’re in over our heads?
If you keep living like you’ve always lived and you think there will be a different result or outcome, well my good friends, that right there is the definition of insanity. So, If you’re getting tired of doing things your way and it’s not getting you where you want to go, maybe it’s time to try a new tactic…like following directions and asking for help.
“Whose directions?” you ask.
God has given us directions through His word. We have the ultimate instruction manual—the Bible.
“Ask for help?”
Yes. Just talk to Him. That’s what prayer is. Ask him for help. It works.
God wants you to succeed and He’s waiting to help. Just like my dad with his red tool

box, He’ll show up when you call. All you have to do is ask.

Nothin’ Means Nothin’

By Brad Bramlet

“Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Nothing.”
“Nothing…really? Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“But what about…?”
“Fill in the blank with whatever you want! Nothing means nothing. God will never, ever stop loving us.”
“Never?”
“No, never. When I wrap my heart and mind around this promise, directly from God, I feel completely amazed. His love for us is absolutely, positively amazing.”
“Are you saying that there is nothing I could ever do to get God to stop loving me?”
“That’s right. That’s what I’m saying.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing!”
“Why would God love me like that?”
“The answer is so simple. He loves us like that because we need Him to. We all need to be loved unconditionally and He is the only one who can do it. We need God’s love and acceptance to be empowered to live life to the fullest—to be able to truly love others.”
“So what you’re saying is that His love is completely unconditional?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Romans 8:39 says: ‘Nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ ”
“I don’t have to do anything?”
“Well, yes. You have to do one thing.”
“I knew it. I knew there was a catch. What one thing?”
“Receive it. Like a gift.”
“Just receive it?”
“Yep. Just receive it.”
“Like a gift?”
“Uh huh, like a gift.”
“Wow!”
“Wow is right.”