Beware of Fix-It People

“Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
- James 1:19b

Are you a fix-it person? You know the scenario, someone is frustrated with themselves or their situation and they tell you and immediately you have a way to fix-it for them. Or your child is continuing down the same well worn path of life that frustrates you and you must fix-it. Or your wife is struggling at home with the children and her responsibilities and you ride in on your great white steed to fix-it. For many frustration is in the air but for you it is an opportunity to employ tactics, plans, procedures, discipline and schedules to be the fix-it person for their problems.

If you have a fix-it mentality, as I do, there is often much pride wrapped up in your desire to fix-it. We want to be our wives knight in shinning armor, or our children’s humble sage, or our neighbors got it all together friend. And when we have walked away from imparting our fix-it wisdom we think well of ourselves and wonder at our great insight and ability to help. Or if our fix-it wisdom has been met with resistance we wonder at the other person’s stubbornness or why they do not get it, and why will they not follow our brilliant advice.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am all for helping other people. And I think discipline, schedules, planning and ideas are important to share and use in one another’s lives. But often our fix-it plan fails to reach those we love at the heart of their being and living. This is so because we fail to listen and bring them to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we give them God replacements instead.

The problem with this fix-it mentality is that we carry people away from what they need most in their time of need, the God of the gospel. We take people away from their identity as sinners and Christians if they are in Christ. We take them away from God’s provision for them in the gospel. And we take them away from God’s progression in the gospel. Fix-it people hear the problem and employ a method to assist people in their madness, but do not realize that we are actually increasing the possibility for madness by teaching them to live externally outside of the gospel of Christ.

The reason we are frustrated in the situations and circumstances of life is because we are sinners. We do not realize that our true identity lies in the fact that sin dwells in us (Romans 7:20), and in this body of death that still lurks in the earth we are constantly met by circumstances and situations that do not meet our needs, wants, desires and loves. Our greatest problems do not lie outside of us but inside of us and this internal problem is what needs fixing. And this is where the other side of our identity is necessary. If we have been born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:3-8) so that we have repented of our sin and are trusting in Christ alone for salvation, the forgiveness of sins and justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ, then our identity is a child of God (John 1:12). We have a new identity in Christ (2Corinthians 5:17) and we are being saved from sin and death with the certainty of an eternal future in the glorious presence of the living God. And while I am still a sinner I am also a child of God with all the rights and privileges as a citizen of God’s kingdom. We need to help people not by trying to be their fix-it person, but by helping them to see out of what identity they are living. Bringing people to the gospel of Jesus Christ means that we do not take them away from the gospel by giving them God shaped replacements for “Christian living”, but that we help them to see who they truly are as sinners and why they are responding to life as they are and then, if they are in Christ, show them who they are a citizens of God’s kingdom through their identity in Christ so that they will face the situations and circumstances as though dead to sin and alive in Christ.

Another reason we are frustrated in the situations and circumstances of life, and a reason we will avoid the difficult circumstances and situations in life is because we do not know the provision of the gospel. Fix-it people think the provision of the gospel is the “Christian Living” section of the book store, books and plans for financial freedom, schedules for children and home life, ideas for organization, verses to memorize and theological ideas that assist me in being a reasonable Christian in the world. Some of these things are good and helpful but most become God replacements when what we need is the gospel. The apostle Paul says, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20). Those who are alive in Christ have everything they need for life and godliness in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The circumstances and situations of life that frustrate us or that we avoid can be met as we see the provision of the gospel in Christ. This provision runs deeper than all the above mentioned helps. Christians are so called because their identity is Christ and they are provided with everything they need for a present and eternal life of godliness in Christ. This is why Christians can glory in weakness because God’s grace in Christ is sufficient for all our weaknesses and in those weaknesses we see His strength. Not having it all together is not a bad thing when it thrusts us toward God’s provision for us in the gospel. Fix-it people need to bring broken people to the gospel that they may live in Christ. But normally fix-it people take people away from the gospel to get a band-aid, and then when all cleaned up back to God as a presentation of the glory of man.

The last reason we are frustrated in the circumstances and situations of life is because we are looking to them for comfort, peace, ease and prosperity. Those of us who are sinners and at the same time children of God, and are alive in Christ provided with everything for life and godliness, need to know that the gospel means God is also at work in us (Philippians 1:6). The life we live here is not a perfect life nor is it a life where we are in neutral waiting on eternal life. The life in the gospel is a life of repentance and faith because God is at work in us for His own pleasure. And His pleasure is to make us the image bearers of Christ, reflecting His glory in the earth in holiness. This gospel work is God’s in us as we live in Christ as His children and he will do whatever is necessary and according to His will to bring that about. This is why we turn to methods and madness when we find ourselves facing difficulties and trials. We forget the process that we are in and think that it is not possible for my present and temporal joy to be lost in order that God may bring me to a weight of glory (2Corinthians 4:17). God is at work in us for His glory not our glory through our own comfort, peace and prosperity. The gospel means change in us from God hating sinners to God glorifying image bearers alive in Christ. Therefore, fix-it people who try to take people away from the struggles by giving them God replacing methods to make coping with the struggles easier or their lives more prosperous are at odds with the gospel. We must thrust others upon the gospel where they identify and understand the progression of the gospel and live in it by repentance and faith. Fix-it people may ask, “Have you prayed about this?”, but they rarely ask, “Have you repented?”. Fix-it people bypass repentance and believe that faith is in the form of following some plan or method.

I am a confessing fix-it person who has taken people away from God in the gospel to many God replacements. I want to be slow to speak and quick to listen, that I can bring people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is here they will see their identity as sinners and understand their great need, and then find that need met in their identity as children of the living God. It is here that they will see the provision of God for them in the gospel as they understand that God has given them everything they need for life and godliness. And it is in the gospel that they will live with God’s progression toward holiness in Christ through being satisfied with all that He is for them embraced through repentance and faith.