Fix or be Fixed

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Missionary Lives

By Paul McKaughan ⋅ August 16, 2008 ⋅

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I love to fix things. As a kid it was cars, then sadly, I graduated to fixing people. It must be a cultural trait. Dr. Ted Ward, who is an astute mission observer and strategist, told me, “America is a nation of engineers and fixers.”

We were talking about missions, and it was Ward’s observation that often we Americans look for the poor and needy, the needier the better. Fixing them makes us feel useful, more needed, or virtuous. Historically we determined what they needed and “what we could teach them” so that “they could get fixed.” From the birth of our missionary movement, we set up schools, with our teacher at the center to accomplish the “fixing” task. It didn’t work all that well. But that was back then, missions in a colonial age.

Today we are much more modern and advanced, so we do the job more subtly, in the form of a seminar. We make a spiritual discovery and with our PowerPoint presentation, we scale it up to fix the leader, the Church or even the whole world. The fact remains, we still ascertain the “need” and we still try to “fix people.” We ought to know better by now.

A wise man now with the Lord, Ed Dayton, repeatedly told me that “a point of view is basically a view from a point.” What is the point from which we view others?

As a reflection of our “fix it” culture, far too often, the assessment of the needs is subtly or not so subtly top down. We assess from the vantage point of our superior theology, education, money or effective “proven” ministry outcomes. We then insistently proclaim that the principles that will “fix” others are Biblically universal, for all times, and for all peoples. Far too often our vantage point is one of assumed superiority. A view from the vantage point of pride rarely captures a complete picture, or produces good and lasting results. Humility is a fruit of God’s Spirit. Pride, no matter how well intentioned, is from the pit.

We often think (all right, I often think) that God shows up when I arrive on the scene and begin to determine what needs fixing. However, humans are not objects to be fixed. They are people who live and move within the stream of God’s providence just as you and I do. He was there, and active long before we arrived. The Sovereign graciously superintends each experience that brings us to the place of our common encounter. He brings us together not just for their benefit it is also to repair us.

We all desperately need to be “fixed.” God is the only one who can do the job. He often does it through others who are quite different from us. We have no built in, innate advantage that warrants our inclination to superiority. For the follower of Jesus, the “means” and “ends” are one and the same. God uses us and in the process shapes us. We all need fixing. The miracle is that He graciously calls all of us broken people to participate with Him in the process of fixing our fallen, broken world.