You Don’t Have One Either

Perplexing issues have plagued me recently, a couple thorny issues. So I started looking around for my magic wand, the one I used to use when I was a pastor. Then I remembered; I never had one. I still don’t.

Neither do you.

A friend reminded me this week, “You can’t fix everything.”

Neither can you.

There are no magic wands in life; you will not find one under the Christmas tree. Let’s focus on this instead: fix what you can and pray about the rest.

All things are possible with God, but not with you. You aren’t God.

Fix what you can and pray about the rest.

There are issues at work in our land. There are real and present dangers, evil and rebellion against God. In the nation. In your state. In your community. Fix what you can and pray about the rest. Keep in mind that one of the great change agents in the world is the local Christian congregation. Getting more involved in yours will help fix things more than you might think. Think of your local congregation as a mustard seed.

So let me modify. Fix what you can, pray about the rest and get more involved in your local congregation.

Bet you are gathering with family and friends in the next couple of weeks. With the gatherings come good and bad relationships. Happy and dark histories. Triumphs and wounds. Expectations and exasperations. Remember forgiveness goes a long way to bring healing to interpersonal relationships. It is at the heart of our reconciliation with God.

A further modification: Fix what you can, pray about the rest, get more involved in your local congregation and practice forgiveness.

When one year ends and a new one begins, you have an arbitrary but real opportunity to reset any number of things in your life: finances, physical fitness, personal habits. Some of these things are in your control. Some of them are not. For instance, I can do some things about staying fit: walk, a little weight workout and stretching. However, no matter what I do, that upper shelf in the kitchen becomes less and less accessible to me. I just need to quit fussing and use a stool.

Add this modification then: Fix what you can, pray about the rest, get more involved in your local congregation, practice forgiveness and use a stool instead of fussing about things.

Note this too.

We are to be about fixing things in this world. That is part of ruling over and subduing the (broken) earth. It is our calling. Certainly, this side of eternity we are limited in many ways by many things. That doesn’t mean we should not work to fix things; it does mean we should not expect to fix everything.

There is one who can and who one day will. We find him not wrapped up like a magic wand under a tree; we find him in a manger. We find him on a cross. One day we will find him face to face and find all things fixed.

So one more modification: Fix what you can, pray about the rest, get more involved in your local congregation, practice forgiveness, use a stool instead of fussing about things and always… fix your eyes on Jesus.