ALL OF THE HELP THAT YOU REQUIRE IS AVAILABLE…JUST BEYOND THE END OF YOUR FINGER TIPS

We all need help!……..Nobody makes it alone!

Throughout the Holy Scriptures God admonishes us to seek help and assistance from a multitude of places and people.

We are all needy people.  We need one another.  That is the way God made us.  We are mostly needy for good positive long term personal relationships….The two most important personal relationships you will ever create with other “Beings” are  first with your Creator and secondly with other people.  

True and lasting friendships are one of the most valuable things we can ever possess on this earth.  They are worth far more to us than money and other material things.  

My advice to you is quite simple when it comes to having good personal relationships…make certain that you establish them…first by discovering and coming to know who God really is and what your relationship with Him should actually be….and then second by and between you and other people whom you know or with whom you interact.

Good personal relationships will benefit all the parties involved.  The advantages and benefits that evolve from such lasting relationships will assist you in every area of your life.  The good news about positive personal relationships is that the blessings they produce flow in all directions…upward and downward….left to right…and right to left…All parties to the relationship are always going to be impacted.  

Lastly…..Personal relationships with others will add peace, joy, happiness, prosperity, and soundness of mind to your life….for the rest of your life…and that is going to be a very long time.

Good positive lasting personal relationships are VERY GOOD THINGS.  That is precisely why they take lots of time to properly get established and be developed.

Permit me to better explain the meaning that I am attempting to communicate to you by the retelling of very old story as related by Louis Binstock, rabbi of Chicago’s Temple Shalom.

Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, Germany, lived a family with eighteen children.  Eighteen!  In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other kind of paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.  Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of Albrecht Durer’s children had a dream.  They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the academy.

After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact.  They would toss a coin.  The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy.  Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines.

They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church.  Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg.  Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation.  Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.

When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming.  After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with much music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition.  His closing words were, “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn.  Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you.” 

All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, “No…no…no…no!”

Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks.  He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close  to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother, I cannot go to Nuremberg.  It is too late for me.  Look…..look what four years in the mines have done to my hands!  The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or brush.  No, brother….for me it is too late.”

More than 450 years have since passed.  By now. Albrecht Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works.  More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.

One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward.  He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.”

The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look.  Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one—no one—ever makes it alone!

Of course, you don’t have to try to make it alone.  Whether your faith is great or almost nonexistent, you still have your own set of praying hands. All you need do, whenever things get tough, is just touch your palms together, extend your fingers, raise your eyes, and say, “Oh Lord, I need Your help.”  I’ve done it at least a thousand times throughout my life.  Results?   You might be surprised when you discover how close help is…. if you will just ask for it.

You want to be successful?  It really is quite simple…..Always put other people first…….and develop and live your own life governed and controlled by a loving and caring Servant’s Heart coupled with a growing personal relationship with God Almighty!

Leaders Gotta Lead…..