Image Description: A gorgeous loaf of bread, gifted to me by my friends Jeff and Nancy Renner.
I was in a Zoom meeting when someone mentioned the bread that her family makes at home each week. With ovens right there in their home, they bake for some stores in my town. Then they always make a bit extra.
I’ve had their bread before, and I know how good it is. “Oh, that’s sounds so delicious,” I thought, suddenly with a hankering for that bread.
So as soon as the meeting was over, I emailed them and asked if I could have a loaf. I was invited to come over the very next day and pick it up, and when I did, it was gloriously tasty and hot right out of the oven. I know it was gloriously tasty because I was already eating it in the car on the way home.
This is a reminder that sometimes, we can just… ask.
During the last Lent season, right before the coronavirus was fully on our radar, I chose to take on what I called “the spiritual practice of asking for things.” It’s all the more vital now. We are often afraid to ask from our friends and community members, but the truth is, folks are often glad to share. We fear being a ‘burden’ (this is straight up a cultural reflection of ableism and capitalism, where we’re taught we’re supposed to do everything ourselves productively, or else lose care) but when people ask us for things, we hardly ever think of them the way we tend to think of ourselves.
So we can just ask. And our friends and neighbors are often delighted, just as we are when we can participate in providing for someone.
This is a choice to lean into a beautiful, spiritual value — interdependence. And that value takes form relationally, concretely, and materially.. Sometimes, just ask.
Smuggling Grace 