What’s on your mind? Are you excited about the possibilities of this new year? Or are you feeling like you need fewer problems and more solutions?
I’ll be honest, I spent a good part of Christmas break seeing the world’s problems and trying (unsuccessfully) to be the solution.
The harder I tried to be the answer, the trickier the questions got. All of a sudden I felt snowed in by things no one ever asked me to own.
What can I do to help with a friend’s medical crisis?
What can I do to ease the pain of death?
What can I do to erase drugs from a loved one’s household?
I tossed and turned trying to find solutions. I prayed and cried and prayed some more. I asked God what I was missing — why the answers wouldn’t come to me.
The answer came through a friend who gently suggested that I had the wrong idea.
She said, “Nic, God is not asking you to ‘fix’ anything. He wants you to trust Him. Not control, not manipulate, not force it — but to trust Him with the outcomes knowing that His ways are better than ours.”
Somewhere along the way, my vision had become skewed. I was focusing on the small picture of life and my big role in it instead of the big picture of life and my small role in it.
I’m not meant to be the girl with the golden touch who rolls in to save the day. I’m not meant to be Mr. Fix-It. Somedays I’m not even qualified to carry a hammer.
I realize now that I was trying to steal God’s job. Have you ever done that? You tear yourself apart trying to find solutions?
I’m back in a place of great peace today, because I know my role. I don’t have to fix anything — and neither do you. Instead we can love others and extend kindness whenever we can. And when we pray, we can thank God that His ways are so much better than ours.
