Is it okay to be needy?

Sometimes we get so carried away in our giving that we overlook the difficulty in receiving.

So I overlooked the look in her eyes.

She had picked up her free bag of food. Now she waited on her friend.

I approached and asked if she needed anything else.

She said, “No, thank you.”

I pressed in to ask how she was doing.

And her dignity spilled out.

She said she’d be better if she didn’t have to be here. Not that she wasn’t grateful; she was.

“But,” I said, “they have so much to give away and they are glad to share with you. It’s okay to take some when you need it.”

But what I wish I said—after taking her eyes home with me and thinking about it—was,

“I know. It’s hard to take from others when we’d rather be independent.

But we all are needy. Just in different ways at different times. And thankfully God is always ready to give to us.”

It’s okay to be needy.

She needed canned vegetables. Bread. Toothpaste.
She also needs Love. Grace. Hope. 
Jesus.

I do, too.

I need to take less pride in my independence.

I need to be emptied of self.
So I can be filled with Him.

He came to fill me.
He comes to fill me still.

The Breath of God daily blows into me, expanding my soul with the fullness of His Spirit.

I need less independence—more dependence.
On His coming. His filling. His satisfying.

He sees it in my eyes.

May I see it, too—my neediness, the hungry lady’s neediness, your neediness.
For it’s in our neediness that we receive His riches.
Be needy.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

* * *

Is it also hard for you to receive from others?

To receive from God?