AFTER fifty years an old man met another old woman whom he’d known in his youth. He remembered her as a winsome beauty and someone all the boys were after. “I wanted so desperately to marry you!” he said. “Why didn’t you?” she asked. “I was scared you’d refuse!” said the old man.
“I wouldn’t have,” she said, “I liked you, but you never asked for my hand in marriage!” Imagine, he lost a beautiful woman because he never asked! A snooty millionaire took some of his upper-class friends yachting.
They passed a deserted island where a man with a long beard, and tattered clothes stood and looked at them. “Who is that?” asked the friend.
“I don’t know,” said the host, “but every time we sail by, he stands there and looks, I think he is marooned on the island.”
“Why don’t you pick him up?” asked his friend. “He should ask for help!” said the rich man, “Shouldn’t he?” ‘Dare to Ask,’ is a chapter in my book DARE, in which I wonder what would happen to our world, if people did not ask? No sales, no business, no marriages maybe! Do you know that the word “mayday”, which is used by pilots and ship captains in an emergency, comes from the French word “m’aidez,” which means “help me!”
Ask for help and you will get it. Don’t ask and stay marooned on an island as people wonder why you don’t ask! Help is not usually too hard to get. But we have to ask before we’ll get it.
Even Jesus says, “Ask and it shall be given unto you!” Did he say it, wondering why God’s creation, man, did not ask for what they wanted, instead of always relying on their own weak selves?
I wonder what His expression was as he looked at the crowd and pounded, “Ask!” Entrepreneur Brian Tracy puts it well: “Ask for what you want.
Ask for help, ask for input, ask for advice and ideas — but never be afraid to ask.” Or like one man is fond of saying, “You don’t always get what you ask for, but you never get what you don’t ask for, unless it’s the flu!” I once heard of a little girl who confidently approached a police officer. “Are you a cop?” she asked.
“Yes.” “My mommy said that if I ever needed help, I could ask you.” “Of course you can,” the officer replied. “What do you need?” She stuck out her foot. “Can you please tie my shoelace?” Even as you laugh at this small attempt by me to lighten your mood, today, Sunday, ask, and see things being given to you..!
