I think of the word ‘fix‘ and wonder how a three letter word can have so many connotations. Some good. Some bad.
A word that can mean repair, can also mean despair when it applies to someone getting a fix. And then it can have several other meanings that imply bribery and corruption and trying to nefariously influence the outcome of some event.
If a small word like this can wield so much ‘power’, I wonder at the powers of our mind. How, like this word, our minds can lead us down various paths.
The Wisdom To Know What To Fix
We can think up several bad things to do. Walk down paths that are evil. Follow roads that lead to destruction. Spend our time in meaningless ways. Try to force change in people and situations. Try to use any means fair or foul to ensure that things go our way.
We can allow our minds to work for good. Fixing situations. Repairing things that are broken. Healing the hurt within us. Undo wrongs. And set our minds on goals and plans. We can fix our gaze on God. We can change our attitude. Turn our grumbling into gratitude.
There’s so much good we can do too if we give up our penchant for fixing things. Yes, you read right. Often we want to fix things to make them just so. We are unhappy with our imperfections and want to be perfect. Or we see a loved one suffering and think that we have all the answers – the exact solution to their problem! In fact, we start to treat people like problems to be solved, when all they might need is our presence – standing by without judgement. “The human soul doesn’t want to be advised, or fixed, or saved,” Parker Palmer writes. “It simply wants to be witnessed–to be seen, heard, and companioned exactly as it is.
Today let us hope that we have the wisdom and grace to make the right choices. To lend our mind and energies to the right pursuits. Let us pray to have the wisdom and the means to know what to fix!
This post was written for Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday prompt – Fresh.
Hello, I am visiting from Five Minute Friday where I am your neighbor.
These sentences really resonated with me from your post–
“Or we see a loved one suffering and think that we have all the answers – the exact solution to their problem! In fact, we start to treat people like problems to be solved, when all they might need is our presence – standing by without judgement.”
I am so guilty of being the fixer. I think of solutions while people talk and it makes listening nearly impossible. Thanks for this reminder that what people need most is for me to be there and to listen.
Let us pray for wisdom to know what to fix. Great advice visiting from fmf #4
Sometimes it is in the sitting quietly, listening, and even crying with another person that God is able to then step in and begin to mend. Just being there can often be the most meaningful action we can do for others.
You are definitely speaking to me today Corinne. As frustrating as it is, I need to learn to hold my tongue and accept that the world does not play by my rules, nor need my advice. Especially when it has not been solicited.
I love the quote from Parker Palmer, words to ponder. In the United Methodist System, and perhaps much of Methodism when pastors are appointed to serve a church the language is that the Bishop fixes the appointment. Fixes, not in repair, although that can certainly be true, but fixing, as in setting firmly in place!
Blessings this day and every, Michele
‘Twas yesterday I said it,
“I really do not want to die,”
and someone near me thought a bit,
and then asked, “Well, why?
You’re in pain that doesn’t cease,
and you’re always short of breath;
why not long for bless’d relief,
your going home in death?”
I listened and I held my tongue;
that line of thought is not for me,
but those I die and live among
see this as gain and victory
as was written by St. Paul,
but blind that I’m not him at all.
Yes, I’m a Christian, but not one here just yet, an I do kinda wish people wouldn’t try to ‘fix my faith’!
#1 at FMF this week
Your post made me think of the serenity prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Sometime we must chose what to try to fix and what to let be.
Amie, FMF #25
Such truth here. We need to be slow to speak and quick to listen.WE don’t need to fix everything and everyone. We just need to be present with someone when they are in a “fix”
Ahhh…there’s the rub…how do we know what to fix & what to leave alone? They only way to truly know is to commit the matter to prayer & wait on the Lord for the answer.
Stopping by from FMF #43
The quote by Parker Palmer is so true!
True, why try and fix people when we can just let them be and accept them for who they are, just the way they accept us for who we are!
Love that quite, Corinne! Witnessing can be difficult initially, but it’s actually powerful – both to witness someone else, and to allow someone else to witness you. When we can talk about things without needing /asking/getting unsolicited advice, it’s actually powerfully healing.
Modern Gypsy recently posted..Art journal with me: Intuitive figurative mixed media journal page
Yes! That’s the kind of wisdom we need—holy wisdom from the only one who can actually ‘ fix’ the broken things in our lives.
How beautiful and meaningful are the lines – “The human soul doesn’t want to be advised, fixed or saved. What it needs is to be seen, heard, and to be companioned with. Lovely.