Fixer Upper
People like to fix things.
People like to watch other people fix things (as evidenced by HGTV).
People like to fix other people.
But people don’t like to be fixed.
I was driving home with my wife from dinner the other night and we started judging Christians for being so judgmental. Okay, we weren’t judging, we were “observing”.
Regardless of our own culpability, we came across an interesting, although not at all novel, question.
Why do Christians judge others so much?
There is no doubt that many Christians are just being gossips and like to talk crap about others to show how good they are. Oldest motive for judging in the book.
But I think there is another segment of Christianity, whose intentions are pure, who become judgemental for another reason.
Many Christians erroneously believe that they are in the business of fixing people. Especially those in ministry and leadership positions feel “charged” with making sure that people turn out okay.
After all, that is why we have bible studies and counselling sessions and book groups and worship time and sermons, isn’t it? And maybe that’s why people feel compelled to write blogs that identify and solve the big questions of life ;-)
However, the point of all the stuff we do as Christians should not be to fix others, but to point them to God. Then, He can fix them.
I think that is what the apostle Paul is referring to in Romans 12 when he talks about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice and calls it “a spiritual act of worship”; which puts it much higher, at least in my book, than self help.
Our job is not to fix people. It is to encourage, edify, and rebuke them to worship God in the way Paul describes, then let Him do the dirty work.
Imagine the relief so many in the ministry would have if they found out that making sure people turn out okay is not their responsibility?
And imagine how good others would start to feel if they didn’t think we were out to “fix” them, but to encourage and equip them to love and worship God?
When we start looking at people as worshipers of our God, rather than projects in need of fixing, I think the judgmental habits will start to fade away; and people will be truly transformed rather than just compelled to fall in line?
What do you think?
