Repair, Replace or Recreate?

I tried to replace our old toaster once. My husband didn’t like all the bells and whistles of the new toaster. We kept the old toaster while the new toaster was given to our son for his college apartment.

Then the old toaster began to work sporadically. Finally, I would have the excuse I needed to buy a new toaster. My husband was not deterred. He replaced the faulty plug with a new part and electrical tape. Today, I still have that same old toaster and a happy husband who just wanted plain toast.

What if the brokenness couldn’t be fixed? What if the problem couldn’t be figured out? What if the parts weren’t available? What if there was no one to fix it? I’m no longer talking about toasters. I’m referring to our circumstances, our lives and us, as human beings. If you have ever felt overwhelmed, helpless or hopeless, then you can relate.

We are not alone. Our Father in heaven sees our struggles. God reaches down to us through His Son Jesus Christ to fix the brokenness. God’s way is not a temporary fix or an obvious repair job. God transforms us into a new creation by giving us a new heart. There is nothing plain about it. Let’s start our day with God and discover that extra helping of joy.

 

Ezekiel 36:26-27

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

 

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Things that Go Bump in the Night

A cancer diagnosis can instill fear: fear of the future, fear of treatment, fear of re-occurrence, fear of death and even fear that doesn’t have to make sense. Thankfully, my breast cancer was caught early and I was spared some of the fears that other cancer patients have to deal with. However, I remember one fear that caught me off-guard: fear of the radiation treatments.

These treatments were every day, Monday through Friday for seven weeks. I was positioned and then a machine whirred around me. It didn’t take long. It wasn’t painful. The technicians were sensitive to my needs. Regardless, those thirty-five treatments could instill panic in me that I struggled to control.

Why? The simple answer is that I could not see the radiation. I had to trust that the physicists properly calibrated the machine. I had to rely on the technicians’ expertise to operate the equipment. There was two feet of concrete wall to protect the workers, but there was nothing between me and this source of powerful energy. I feared what I couldn’t see.

I was able to overcome my fears of the invisible by focusing on a more powerful source, one not created or controlled by man: God. I learned to daily trust the Creator of heaven and earth who has every imaginable and unimaginable, every seen and unseen power at his disposal. The invisible God only became visible through faith. The invisible God became my God when I believed his promises for my circumstances. God will always be our ever-present refuge from the things that go bump in the night and darkness of our lives.

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

2 Corinthians 5:7

For we live by faith, not by sight.