Mr. Fix-it

One of my most natural inclinations is to be a fixer.  When someone shares their problems with me, I automatically default to “fix-it mode.”  This can be a problem relationally, because a lot of times I ignore the person, while trying to figure out a way to fix their problem in my head.  It’s so hard not to try and fix everything.  Specifically for my loved ones.  Early on in our marriage, Jenn would share things with me, and I wouldn’t listen.  I’d interject ways to fix whatever she was going through.  That did not always make for good conversation or moods!  This problem amplified itself when I became a dad.  It even makes appearances in my teaching and coaching.  

With my kids, I want so bad to keep them out of trouble.  When I watch Mary-Faith doing something the wrong way, I want to swoop in and show her the right way to do it, to keep any disappointment from entering her life.  It’s so much worse with a baby.  I’m that Dad that follows his kid around and tries to make sure they don’t slip or fall or touch anything hot.  Of course, I’m not always successful, the only thing I am successful at is annoying either my kids or my wife, sometimes both.  

The thing is, a lot of times, my intervening in my child’s life can make them miss a lesson.  If I am constantly chasing Bubba to keep him from falling, he will never learn anything about walking or exploring.  He won’t even know what it’s like to fall.  If I constantly fix everything for Mary-Faith, she will never grow.  The kids will miss out on opportunities to learn and grow!  

So why doesn’t God just fix all our problems?  Why would God create a perfect world only to let it be screwed up by imperfect people?  

Those are perplexing questions.  They truly work and strain the brain and the strands of theology and faith!  The short answer is, he is going to fix all our problems, one day.  Just like in  Casablanca, “maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon...” God is going to crack open the sky and bring about the conclusion of history.  Why not fix it today though?  

We could all agree that all God would have to do to fix everything in the world, is say the words.  With a quick sentence or two, the terribleness of the world would come to a screeching halt.  However, God seeks the completion of his mission.  He sent his son to the earth to die, so that he could be the atonement for our sin debt.  The Bible tells us in Romans 6 that, “The wages of sin is death...” There has to be a payment for the sin of the world.  In the Old Testament the atonement was the blood sacrifice.  When Jesus came, he replaced that.  He became the payment on the cross for the sin debt that we owe.  Once and for all.  

In the book of Matthew,  Jesus tells us that “all authority and on earth has been given to him.”  He goes on and includes his followers in this plan.  The plan is to spread the word of his Kingdom to the rest of the world.  What has happened is, over time, the people on Earth have walked further and further away from God.  It is then the mission of God’s followers to bring the rest of the human race to God.  God’s people travel the world with this Gospel, or good news.  Some spread it like wild fire, others keep it to themselves.  

Yeah, that’s perplexing in itself.  

We have a solution to the problems of the world, and we sometimes sit on it.  We hide it.  We disguise it, with our continuous bombardment of those who are not followers of Jesus.  We hit them with disgusting comments and even tear down our fellow brothers and sisters in the process of “protecting our truth.”  

So why doesn’t God fix it?  If he fixed it, we’d miss it.  We would have been forced into a relationship.  We’d be miserable in a sort of captivity.  The beauty of the life of a Christ-follower is that the desire to follow after Jesus is all that matters.  We are not forced into our service to the kingdom.  

It’s just like with my kids.  If I forcibly intervene in their life, they will never recognize the sweetness of life.  If all our mistakes were fixed in auto-pilot mode, then no one would want that.  God offers us a completely free gift of salvation.  We definitely did absolutely nothing to deserve the chance at saving.  So God’s not interested in intervening in lives he’s not invited to.  I think the beauty of this is,  free will.  God creates us knowing that one day we are going to choose to step away from him, yet he still creates us.  

So we are not Mr. Fix-it.  We serve the Fix-all.   One day, he will return and he will complete the perfect world.  Until then, it’s our job to encourage and call on those outside of His plan to join up!