“God fixes everything” is kind of a child-like phrase, but there is truth there. I think I become about six years old in faith sometimes, which is fine, which is a vast improvement over being a two year old. Two yr olds tend to just throw themselves on the floor kicking and screaming when their world falls apart.
Several years back I was working in healthcare and just became completely overwhelmed by this kind of unholy confluence between Obamacare, opioids, and addiction. I was watching us make people sicker. Kill them, even. People needed the Lord, they needed soul care, they needed love, and they were turning to Western medicine instead. So if your life has become unmanageable, we got a pill for that.
Opioids are kind of interesting, some people do quite well with them, they manage pain, they work as they are intended, but others become addicted quite quickly. Addiction is kind of complicated, but one thing for sure, if there are spiritual issues in your world, if you are missing out on any soul-care, you become far more vulnerable to developing an addiction and a dependency.
Obamacare gave us this influx of people who suddenly had insurance and when you are faced with this endless parade of backaches, knee pain, and emotionally hurting people because life, well, we got a pill for that. I’m not pointing fingers at doctors and nurses, many of them are kind and well-intentioned, it is just that Western medicine is so not designed to care for your soul.
The world of addiction is dark, ugly, and painful, especially if you are on the outside looking in. Addiction is a thief that comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. So, grief, violence, suicide, abandoned kids, destroyed lives, jail, the hospital, garbage, mental illness, hoarding, homelessness, and thievery. I was watching heroin march through my community from one side and opioids march in from the other. Add in some meth because meth loves a bad economy, and it was just total chaos.
The kids just crushed me. When you have an addicted parent you are just emotionally abandoned, totally neglected, and it really begins to take its toll. I just saw so many kids robbed of their childhoods, robbed of the soul care they needed so desperately. And if everyone around you is addicted, your escape from the world, your peer group…..is going to lead you right into addiction, too.
I got nothing, just empty hands, completely powerless to do anything about it all, so prayer, lots and lots of prayer. In the midst of some of those prayers, accusing prayers, angry prayers even, God simply said, okay, I’ll fix it. Just like that. I was of course flabbergasted, and quite skeptical. He said quite clearly, “watch me,” and He reminded me of when I was a child and I had that child-like faith that totally received it and trusted in Him. Yep, God fixes everything. He did too, quite often when I was young. He rescued me from some desperate situations that really seemed to have no solution. No solution, but God.
I have been watching. I have taken note of so many changes going on. Some people don’t like our President but he and the First Lady have taken on the opioid epidemic head on, and they are making progress, there is change afoot. The Justice Dept has broken up some major crime rings, lots and lots of drugs have been seized, some healthcare policies have changed. We are now seeing testimonies from former addicts, and public awareness campaigns…and memorials. The economy has started to improve, joblessness has declined, and this administration has taken up the cause of faith, they seem to understand that freedom of religion is not freedom from religion.
Sometimes people have a hard time with “religion,” it’s left a bad taste in their mouth. They don’t understand that people still need soul care, they need hope, they need somewhere to place their eyes when life starts swirling the drain.
God said He’d fix it and He is fixing it. Perhaps unknown to some, but that is actually the result of hundreds of thousands of desperate prayers coming from all over the country, heartbroken parents, grieving children, and cops too, just drowning in this sea of hopelessness, feeling overwhelmed and powerless to do anything to make it better.
Prayer works, prayer matters, prayer changes things. “God fixes everything.”
I can’t make anyone “like” this President, I can’t heal the divisions within our country, but I sure can tell you some of us were already living in the midst of the “worst that can happen,” watching kids die, enduring suicides, losing everything and everyone we cared about, and coming up against this brick wall that just left us helpless, completely powerless, and devoid of all hope.
I’m grateful for answered prayers and for a God who fixes everything.
The V Pub said:
I don’t know. Some people never stop falling down, screaming and kicking. Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren are daily practitioners of it. 😉
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Salvageable said:
I remember the prayers of my childhood, such as when I was looking for a lost ball in the neighbors’ garden. I should pray like that more these days. J.
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Sonny said:
God does take care of His master plan, I am not so sure if He told me to eat eggs or bacon today. I do know He loves you/me/us. Past that I would hesitate to try to place Him in my limited box of understanding. We will see Him face to face very soon and we can ask Him all these questions. Or maybe the questions won’t matter anymore. I can send my money to missions in every place on earth. I can serve in food distribution to the needy, visit widows in my community, comfort the sick and the stranger, take in the orphans and protect them in the womb. I can forgive my enemy, love my neighbors and break bread with them. I can with a few or many and be the Church where I am even in an RV or a boat. Just as Peter and John went fishing and ate with Jesus, Was that not Church? Like the Church in Acts we can be the Church and begin by Loving our neighbors, shining the Light for the lost. I can’t fix all those problems we know are in the world. I don’t expect God to fix any other way than Jesus’ command to the disciples. If problems are to be solved His followers will have to do the fixing. Peter says that this earth is reserved for fire and will be burned up, not cleansed! We look forward to the New Earth John saw coming down from God. Jesus is my Savior not religion.
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SLIMJIM said:
As a pastor who have counseled and ministered to people with heavy addiction I believe God fixes everything, even those looking for a quick heroin “fix.”
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insanitybytes22 said:
Amen, Slim. God does indeed fix everything. One of my favorite sayings is, “she who has the Most High, needs no other high.” That’s not so easy to reach out for, but it’s the truth.
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SLIMJIM said:
Amen. Witty ditty!
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oneta hayes said:
A refreshing blog pointing to the Fixer. I believe we are being given a chance to look again to Him as the answer – the One who Fixes. Thanks, I.B. I get pretty discouraged about our culture sometimes. But I definitely believe our President is showing us some hope. For that I am so grateful and thankful to our Supreme God. I think of the scripture which tells us not to look at the strength of our horses for our help. Our help comes from God – and whomever he uses on earth.
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Citizen Tom said:
Reblogged this on Citizen Tom and commented:
Is Donald Trump the answer to our prayers? Well, he is not the answer, but thus far he has been part of the solution.
How do we know when God answers our prayers? I wish I knew. There are times when I have the feeling, but never the certainty.
The election of Donald Trump was so unexpected. A miracle? He is definitely not the man anyone expected to win, and he has defied everyone’s expectations.
What I do know is that we all need to pray for our leaders and help them to do the right thing.
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scatterwisdom said:
“Ask and thou shalt receive.”
Getting someone to seriously ask for help from God may sometimes be harder to do than to break a bad habit, in my opinion.
You will know if He answered you when your spirit is strengthened enough to break the bad habit.
Regards and good will blogging.
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authorstephanieparkermckean said:
You are so amazing and so right…and really should run for President. God has blessed you totally, but may He over bless you.
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authorstephanieparkermckean said:
Reblogged this on Stephanie Parker McKean and commented:
This is a great blog. On the strength of her other common-sense, God-dependent blogs…I’ve told her she should run for President.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thank you for the kind words and the reblog. Much appreciated. 🙂
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