In Need of Repair?

Jesus does not look on any problem and shake His
head in discouragement. He can fix it!

By Darrel Lee

Several years ago, someone commented to me that “in this life there are wreckers and there are repairers.” Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to have this speaker elaborate on his comment because he died just a couple of weeks later. I assume he meant that there are those in this world who can take a situation and make a mess of it, while others can take the same situation and put the pieces back together. Most likely, we have all met wreckers in our lifetime. We know what damage they can do, but I would rather focus on those who repair situations.

Shortly after our family moved to Eureka, California, where I was to pastor, we discovered that the parsonage needed some attention. One evening, while sitting on the floor with my son, I noticed that the carpet was wet. After some initial exploration, it was clear that I needed help from someone who could fix plumbing problems. Thankfully, we were blessed with a parishioner who could fix pretty much anything. I called Brother George and explained what was going on. He came over and investigated that problem and fixed it.

Some time later, we experienced an electrical problem. You guessed it! I called the church’s electrician, who just happened to also be the church’s plumber: Brother George. He found the problem and traced it to the source, which was underneath the house. Undaunted, he pulled on his coveralls and went under there. Despite the fact that he was working while surrounded by seventy years of dust, he was able to diagnose and fix the problem. To make a long story short, this dear brother went under the house probably half a dozen times in the three-and-a-half years that we lived in Eureka. No matter what the problem was, he could and did fix it.

As I watched Brother George fix the problems in our house, a parallel emerged of God, and how He fixes our lives. When it comes to repairers, the Chief Repairer is the Lord. No one else can take a life, wrecked and broken by sin, and put the pieces back together. Only the Lord has the ability to fix the things that need fixing in our lives. You may think that you have a problem no one can fix. Maybe it is so big and complicated that you wonder how it could ever be resolved. Maybe you are wondering why life is so full of difficult and painful situations. The reason is found when we look in God’s Word.

In the Book of Genesis, we are presented with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Satan tempted Adam and Eve, they chose to do evil rather than obey God. Their decision plunged the whole human race into what is now called the “fall.” When you consider a fall in the literal sense, images of bruised and skinned-up shins and knees probably come to mind. Unfortunately, we may experience something akin to these bumps and bruises in a spiritual sense because of the everyday decisions we make. If we are not careful, those faulty decisions can make a wreck of our lives, and we could find ourselves in need of “repair.”

As we study the life of Christ, we see that He spent most of His ministry putting broken and damaged lives back together. In Matthew 12:19 we read, “He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.” Christ did not go about drawing attention to Himself. In fact, many times, when He did one of His repair jobs, He would instruct the individual to keep it quiet. That did not always work because, in their excitement over the solution to their problems, these people could not keep it quiet. They told others who, in turn, went to Christ and had similar experiences. Jesus delighted in going about repairing people.

God does the same today. He wants to do that. He reaches out to those who look His way for help, and offers to repair the situations that others consider impossible. Even if He does not always fix the problems the way we think they ought to be fixed, He will fix us to accept the things that possibly we could not accept before.

The text in Matthew goes on to say, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench” (Matthew 12:20). The Lord is very careful, very gentle, and very kind. A reed is a somewhat rigid, delicate plant. Once it is damaged, it is very easy to simply break off the stalk. Careful gardeners will go to great lengths to ensure that a plant will survive. Often you will find them stooped over a struggling plant, trying to support or encourage its growth. That is much like what the Lord does, especially when we are hurt. He does not give up, but often tries one method after another to help us and encourage our spiritual growth. Don’t ever believe that the Lord has given up on you. He has not and won’t! You are a work in progress, even if He has to fix some problems before He begins the actual building process.

When Jesus lived on earth, He was a carpenter. I wonder if He did remodels. Perhaps He went to someone’s house, evaluated the proposed addition or renovation, and then decided the best way to undertake the task. So many times, that is what the Lord has to do with individual lives. In a spiritual sense, it seems that the Lord does many “remodels.”

We read of the time when Jesus came in contact with a man whose hand was withered. The Pharisees, hoping to put Christ on the spot, asked Him if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. They were hoping to accuse Him of violating the Law of Moses, for their hardened hearts could not understand that the Lord’s mission was to fix things—to help people. Christ replied, in effect, “If any one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won’t you grab hold of it and pull it out? You will fix that situation, won’t you? Well, how much better is a man than a sheep?”

Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch forth thine hand.” When the man stretched forth his hand, it was restored whole, like the other. We do not know how long the man had been in that condition, but the Lord took control of the situation and told him to do what really couldn’t be done in his own strength. The man’s hand was shriveled up and, on his own, he could not stretch it out, but the Lord said, “Stretch forth thine hand,” and then gave him the power to do it. The man obeyed and Christ repaired his hand.

Most of us do not live long in this life before we have times when we feel bruised, battered, and knocked around. However, there is nothing that the Lord cannot fix. The reference to a bruised reed, found in Matthew 12:20, is actually a repeat of something the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 42:4 which says, “He [Christ] shall not fail nor be discouraged.” It is conceivable that a carpenter could look at a remodel, shake his head, and think, I just don’t want to deal with this mess. But the Bible says that Jesus will not fail nor be discouraged. He does not look on anything and shake His head in discouragement. He looks on it and says, “I know just how to fix this.”

Does your life need fixing? Christ, the Chief Repairer, is able to accomplish any repair or remodel that is needed in your life. Just ask Him!

Darrel Lee is Superintendent General of the Apostolic Faith Church and pastor of the headquarters church in Portland, Oregon.