I never cease to be amazed how many people live with sadness. They put on a brave face, but beneath the surface are stories… Past trauma, present burdens, future anxiety… the unforgettable memory, the unescapable daily experience, the inevitable outcome. Yesterday it was a gent who’s been caring for his very sick wife for many years…
Hearing this version of the Chris Martin song ‘Fix You’ yesterday seemed to sum it up.
When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
It’s a song of hope. It’s the assurance that in the midst of the darkest human tragedy there can be a light… that when we feel trapped behind a prison’s locked door there can be an escape and freedom… that when we’re exhausted, wounded and alone we can discover healing, peace and love.
This morning I was reading Ezekiel. He’s living in exile, with folks who’ve lost everything – their homes, their identity, their freedom, their purpose, their God. Ezekiel brings a message of hope:
‘I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.’
This is a God who says ‘I will fix you’ with a new heart and a new spirit. It points to Jesus who said ‘I am the light of the world’, coming to ordinary with people with problems and said, ‘I can fix you’, with this new heart and spirit. Wounds can heal, doors can be unlocked, light can shine in darkness.
And as a Jesus-follower I seek to go to folk into my world, and be an agent for the God who says, ‘I will try to fix you’.
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