Enable, that’s the word of the week provided for us by Miss Kate. To enable is to give (someone or something) the authority or means to do something. My question today is, how best to enable? What can we do to enable others to get or have or become whatever it is needed?

How best to enable
It’s but a moment
Takes just a couple of seconds,
Help me.
But in that help me
Might come some baggage.
A help me always
Requires a giving
A showing of need.
Sometimes, just sometimes
That’s a very hard thing to do.
I had a friend
Years past, Who lived
Close to the pocketbook.
Things were hard, but
Asking for help, harder.
I never understood this
This reticence to
Ask for help.
Until, older age and pain
Crept in, and asking for help. Hard.
That admitting of weakness.
That internal feeling of
Shame, and regret, and sorrow.
So I ponder
How do we enable
the asking of help?
While ensuring the
Continuation of dignity?
I admittedly have
No solid answer, but
I’m learning.
That conversations matter,
The taking time to listen.
Or even the taking time
To explain the why,
Or even to not explain.
Sometimes, the offer made
is all that is needful.
Without the expectation
that only you,
Can meet a need.
Sometimes the best way
to enable.
Is while listening
just lend a hand
without explanation.
And perhaps we will learn
how best to enable.

Scriptural basis
Exodus 17:12
When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
Galatians 6:2
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.