How to Fix Everything

Does your life have problems?

Like, any problem at all. Sin problems, health problems, money problems. Or any other kind you can think of.

99% of you probably answered yes. The other 1% answered yes too, if they're honest.

Everyone's life has problems. Life is tough, and it comes with a lot of plot twist that we aren't equipped to handle.

But what can we do about it?

I'm excited to share with you something that the world desperately needs: an easy, simple strategy to fixing everything that is wrong with the world.

(Note: if you're growing a little concerned, please bear with me. I promise I haven't gone crazy.)

Ready? Then let's jump right in!

 

How to fix everything

The first step to fixing every problem in your life is to never sin. 

Think about it. A lot of the problems in your life are internal problems: they're caused by you, and the struggles with sin that you have.

If you sin, than you feel guilty. That isn't a pleasant feeling. And, we are trying to fix everything—so we've got to avoid sinning at ALL COSTS. 

The solution? It's simple: just stop sinning.

This is a very easy thing to do, and will benefit you immensely with no roadblocks, difficulties, or temptations whatsoever. Just be perfect and your life will improve.

(Again: bear with me.)

Another strategy to fix everything in your life is to just do whatever you want to do, with no thought for the consequences.

Do you like being told that something is a bad idea? No? Of course not.

Whenever someone gives you advice that you don't like, that's a problem that you need to fix in your life. You are right 100% of the time, and nobody should tell you otherwise.

Ever.

So, just do what you want to. Exercise your freedom and follow your heart, even if that means robbing a bank or vandalizing your neighbor's car. Then, your life will be simple and worry-free!

The last step that you've got to take for either of the strategies outlined above is to donate exactly 35.4% of your paycheck to your local church, and exactly 17% of the rest to a local charity. 

(Make sure the numbers are exact. Round to two decimal places.)

If you follow the plan I've described for you, you'll have a guaranteed problem-free life within five business days! 

 

Okay, But Actually?

I hope it's very clear that I'm joking. Because this is a terrible plan.

There is no easy three-part solution to guarantee anything in this world. That's just not how life works.

How can we fix everything in our life? 

We can't. 

The reason we look for strategies like this one is because we want to be in control of our life. We want to ensure happiness for ourselves, and we want it to be simple, sure, and sweet.

Part of the Christian walk is recognizing that desire in ourselves and letting go of it. We are fundamentally not in control of our lives. God is—and that can be extremely hard to accept.

But that doesn't make it any less true.

Sometimes, life gives us a plot twist that we didn't see coming. Sometimes we lose our jobs through no fault of our own, or a relationship falls through, or a loved one passes away.

We can't control any of this. And it's quite unsettling when something like this happens; you feel like everything you were depending on is shaken, and anxiety over the future can overwhelm you.

But God's in control of all of it. He's holding you throughout those difficult times, and he knows exactly what's going to happen. Like a perfect author, he knows everything that's going to happen, and he's divinely ordained it since the beginning of time itself.

 

Not only are we unable to fix our lives, but we're unable to even just fix ourselves.

My first "step" up above was to be perfect. If you never sin, then all your problems will go away.

There's a grain of truth in that: our sin is a problem, and avoiding sin would technically be a solution.

But realistically, we cannot just stop sinning. The battle against sin is a long and hard one, and it isn't done overnight. It takes far more than just one decision.

Often, those decisions are extremely hard to make. It seems that for every step forward you take, you take two (or three, or five, or ten) steps back into sin and temptation, and that you never make progress no matter how hard you push yourself.

Trying to perfect yourself in your own power will trap you in a vicious cycle of guilt and self-recrimination. 

Paradoxically, trying to make yourself perfect will make you slip further and further into sin. Because you're resting in your own power, and not in the power of the one who made you.

We can't fix everything. We can't even fix ourselves.

So what do we do?

 

Waiting for Paradise

Someday, Jesus will come back, and everything shall be made new.

When that day comes, there will be no sorrow. There will be no pain or death or sickness or grief, and "he will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 21:4). 

Until then? We wait.

We should not expect that our lives on earth will ever be perfect. And we shouldn't try to make them perfect—that's like looking for needle in a haystack, only you know for a fact that there's no needle at all, and you have hay fever.

Yes, we should strive to be righteous. We should strive to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called," (Ephesians 4:1) and we shouldn't compromise on the commands of the Bible.

But we shouldn't expect to achieve perfection while we're still on this earth. That just isn't happening.

This world is not our home. We're travelers, sojourners, wanderers.

We are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth. We won't have a perfect life in this world, and that's okay. Because we're holding onto the promise of a perfect world to come.

Depending on our self will only lead us to failure and guilt. Instead, we need to wait on the promises of the Father, the saving work of the Son, and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that works in our lives.

Jesus paid it all. And someday we'll live with him.

What more do we need?