no problem solver

'my job is not to solve people’s problems or make them happy, but to help them to see the grace that is operating in their lives.' [[Eugene Peterson]]




I have often viewed Jesus as some life-riddle solver: I’ve got all these issues and if I follow Jesus they will disappear like magic. But in many ways I have found the opposite true. Sure, the burden is easy; the load is light; but the road is rough and small.

I like to carry my own pack. I like to put more burdens on myself. I like to say, ‘more is better.’ And I wonder why I don’t seem to experience God, I don’t seem understand him, I don’t seem in tune with what he is doing—because I’ve done my own Spiritless mission for God.

I am not called to save the world—nor are you—and I am not called to fix people’s problems—neither are you—but we are called to point out that God is doing something. We are to be the arm that picks up a fallen companion on our narrow little road of following our Savior. We are to be the one administering the balm to our wounds and woes. We are to be the ones saying, ‘I know it doesn’t feel like it, but God loves you in the most meaningful ways.’ And we are the ones who need to receive all of it too.

Jesus has not solved my problems; he’s exposed how many I have. Every time I try and tidy up one area of my life he breaks down a wall exposing worse things than before! (dang it!) I’ve got more holes in my theology than a piece of Swiss cheese! I start and fail before I finish. I give up. I’ve done this poorly while neglecting that.

But then there is his grace. He keeps giving it because it is my life support. When God is out of kindness I’m out of hope. One has said something along the lines of ‘we do not know we need Jesus until he is all that is left.’ And Corrie Ten Boom is accredited with saying, ‘When I try, I fail. When I trust, He succeeds.’

Let’s stop trying to change one another with silly means, for when we do we are like a child pretending he is accomplishing something real when he is just playing the old game Operation. But let us point out what our Helper, God’s very Spirit, is doing in and around us all.