What’s Better – Help from Seen or Unseen Sources?

by Z Egloff | Blog, Life in Z-D, Spiritual Practice

photo: John Ragai on flickr

We’ve all been there.

Something goes wrong: We get hurt. Someone offends us. Our car runs out of gas.

So how do we get out of trouble? Where do we turn for help?

Do we look for assistance from things we can see – people, places and things? Or is it better to ask for help from things we can’t see – God, the Universe, a spirit guide wearing a jewel-adorned helmet who likes to be called “Boppy”?

I recently had an experience that reminded me of the power of asking for assistance – and the proper balance between seen and unseen forces.

It all started the other morning when my wife Melissa and I were on a walk. I felt a sharp pain on the underside of my arm and looked down to see a bee, flying out of my T-shirt.

photo: Nicolas Raymond on flickr

I’ll admit, I wasn’t super happy to see the bee. In fact, I was super pissed.

The last time I got stung by a bee, it was on my foot. Soon after I’d been stung, my foot swelled up like a tomato. It itched. It hurt. It was Not Fun At All.

So when the bee first stung my arm, I had a moment of freak out.

What if my arm swells up? What if it turns into a tomato, like my foot did?! Who wants to see a woman with tomato arms? I’m going to look like a freak of nature, with a big tomato arm and fat little tomato fingers!!!

This went on for a few seconds, until another voice joined the conversation.

The more I dialogue with the Divine, the more I can hear it talk to me. As I build this channel of communication, the Divine’s voice gets louder and louder – even in trying circumstances.

The Bee Incident was no exception.

In answer to the tomato-arm freakout, I heard a little voice that said:

Why don’t you ask the angels to help heal your arm?

That’s right, I used the “A” word.

Over the course of my spiritual journey, I’ve related to Source in different ways, using different words: the Universe, Spirit, the Divine.

Sometimes, when I ask for Help, I ask in a general way. But for whatever reason, this day I was prompted to ask the angels.

I used to think that angels were totally old-school. Way Biblical. Then my friend Jill Shinn did some work with Doreen Virtue, and I became hip to the effectiveness of these celestial helpers. (Doreen has since shunned her previous work, but that’s a tale for another day.)

It had been a while since I’d thought to ask an angel for help, but the tiny winged bee motivated me to call upon a bigger winged one for assistance.

After asking the angels for Help, the first thing I was prompted to do was to go back to our house.

Actually, it was Melissa who prompted me to go back to our house. Once we were there, we researched remedies for a bee sting and found out that an ice pack was the antidote of choice.

So I slapped a pack of frozen peas on my arm.

That was it. That was the extent of my activity in relation to the bee: angels and frozen peas.

photo: Melissa Phillippe

The amazing thing was the aftermath of this method of asking for assistance.

In the hours after my bee sting, I developed a faint pink circle on my arm where the bee had stung me. Nothing more.

No swelling. No tomato arms. A little pain, but barely.

I could hardly believe it.

The difference between this bee sting and the tomato-foot sting was like the difference between night and day.

Or, should I say, it was like the difference between asking for Help from the unseen realm and not asking for Help from the unseen realm.

What I particularly liked about my bee incident was that once I asked for assistance from the angels, I was immediately guided to assistance from tangible sources – namely, Melissa and a bag of frozen peas.

Just because we’re busting out the serious wu-wu chops and relying on things we can’t see doesn’t mean that we can’t be open to help from seen sources as well.

Indeed, the unseen realm often quickly and immediately sends us help from tangible sources.

photo: U.S. Army on flickr

What was interesting about my recent bee sting is that the combination of angelic and human assistance created powerful results.

When the bee stung my foot, I iced it afterwards. But I didn’t ask for Help before I did so.

That’s the limitation of relying only on tangible sources of aid. We’ll get help, sure. But it’s not as powerful.

Not only that, if you push ahead in the material world without first aligning yourself with the unseen realm, you can spend a whole lot of time spinning your wheels and chasing after dead-ends. Or both.

And there’s nothing less fun than spinning your wheels on a dead-end road.

On the other hand, if we only rely on the unseen realm and don’t avail ourselves of tangible help when it comes along, we’re like the guy in the story who calls out to God to save him from the flood and then ignores the boats and helicopters who come to rescue him because he’s waiting for God to save him.