"Our Father, Who art in heaven..."

Yesterday when a few of the Church gathered together to encourage one another, a young man had something to say which has stuck with me as if God intended it to. He spoke about learning to run to God for everything, to run to Him as a Father. Because (and this is what penetrated) if you were a parent, would you want your child going next door or around the world or to some two-bit snake-oil salesman for food or clothing or shelter or comfort or advice?
In this country, lack of self-reliance is the eighth Deadly Sin. We can tolerate anything but dependence on other people. This has crept like a choking ivy into our theology to the point that we hate to "bother God." Or we try to protect Him from all our neediness (that would be my tack), imagining, perhaps, that He needs to save His energy for the most important stuff.
Hear this: He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. No one has more resources than He does. No sequence of 87 disasters and subsequent desperate entreaties can sap His reserve. He has no need to send us to the government for assistance, or to the neighbors to borrow. He can always afford it. Just think how hurt your own father would be if you went to someone else's daddy because you needed a broken bone set or some justice administered. This Father of all is both doctor and lawyer, second to none, always available, always tender to His children. Do not dishonor Him by seeking solace in the arms of a stranger. Come home. He longs to be asked.