Patch or Fix It??? / Mrs Tasha Fowler

Mrs Tasha Fowler

Wife / Mom / Photographer

Heritage Baptist Church

Canal Winchester, OH

It seems the older and weaker my body gets, the more I must do to keep it from breaking down altogether. I wondered into a chiropractic office one day, at the referral of a friend. As a new patient, I studied the waiting room: a few nice chairs, a coffee table with magazines, and a TV. On the wall there was a poster with photos on it of two different roads. One was a dingy gray road with cracks, it had potholes and was patched shotily (like spackle on a wall before you sand it down). The other road was a fresh, deep black layer of asphalt. It had bright yellow painted lines and the road looked smooth and clean. On the poster it read "patch or fix." It was referring of course, to physical health, and how many of us cut corners using Tylenol and Band Aids when we should be addressing the real problems. Immediately though, my mind took to it the spiritual aspect and I almost audibly shouted, "Hey, that's good right there!"

First, I thought about people in the Bible who should've let God handle their problem. Folks who should've quit trying to cover their mistakes, and just let God fix the situation. I think David was the best example of this when he sinned with Bathsheba. He immediately tried to cover it up. He tried to have Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, come home so he might think when she started showing her pregnancy, that it was his baby. When Uriah turned out to be an incredibly honorable man, refusing to lay with his wife because so many men were dying in battle, David had him carry his own death sentence back to the battle. Uriah was sent to the most dangerous part of the battle, and there his life was taken. Eventually David admitted his sin and repented, but God did not spare him the consequences of his actions, and he lost the baby. Wouldn't that story have such a different ending if David had let God fix the situation, instead of messing it up worse on his own??? 

Second, I thought about my husband and I, and how this simple truth applied to our lives. For many years growing up, I was spiritually broken. I had been hurt by church people. I was bitter and confused. I had been introduced to the punk rock crowd, and that became my "patch." I was drinking and smoking at a young age, and hanging out with all the wrong crowd. These things took my mind off my pain, so I self medicated until I was numb.  At 15 years old I met my husband, who was also into the rock scene. We married when I was 18 years old, and I thought marriage would also be a type of "patch". If I had a man in my life, I thought things would be better, but one miserable person plus another miserable person, only equals two miserable people. We drank ourselves stupid, and spent 6 years slapping that road spackle on our broken lives. We remained miserable. We were liars and we were selfish. With our terrible marriage, divorce was weekly threat. We were addicts and abusers. We spent all our paychecks on alcohol, and had a constant revolving door of strangers in our house for the endless "party" we threw. In reality, we couldn't stand our sad lives, and being alone forced us to realize it more. We were void and lonely, but we didn't know what it was we so longed for...

A few years into marriage, we became pregnant with our first child. Reality was starting to set in, and the thought of what chance my child had in life on our junky roads convicted me. I wanted to offer him perfect things, and our lives were far from it. As God started tugging at my heart, though I started giving in, my husband was as stubborn as ever. (Men have some sort of "fix it myself" complex, they don't like to admit they are wrong!) When I tried several times to speak to Brandon about finding lasting relief and hope for our lives, I was shot down, and sometimes pretty roughly. I was discouraged. I knew a few church people, but one was like family to me, so I sought her help. I didn't know much about the Bible, but she taught me, and together we prayed for our husbands. 

Brandon had gone to Bible college, but was expelled for living in blatant rebellion of what was expected there. His dad was a pastor, so he had grown up in church. It was harder to speak to him knowing he knew more than I did about Jesus and the Bible. I was intimidated and backed down.

About 6 months later Brandon had decided to join the Air Force. He was ready to sign and leave, when they noticed some things that needed clearing up first. We needed to move in with Pastor/Dad, and we agreed with his rule of going to church. I was secretly excited about this! Our first service there... nothing. I guess I was hoping for a joyous skip down the aisle to the altar hand in hand, but it didn't happen. That night I spoke to Brandon again. He was annoyed and angry, but I continued anyways. It had been 6 years since he had even prayed, and he didn't believe God existed by this point. I offered, "What could it hurt to just pray and test God out? You have to believe in something. If it's not God, then you just believe evolution and that nothing happens when you die? Are you sure you have 100% faith in that?" Nothing. He rolled over and fell asleep. 

The next day I got a text at about 8am. "I prayed today, and I grabbed a new testament on the way out the door and read a verse. It said 'And if a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully.' I think that God is telling me that if I expect anything from Him, I should do things His way." So he just did it, as crazy as it sounds and as simple as that, God convinced him through one prayer and one verse to give this thing as shot! 

He continued to pray, "God, if you're real, show me in a way that I will never doubt you again. If you will do that, I will give you what's left of my life and my family." The next few weeks were unbelievable. Here this stubborn, rebellious, selfish man was searching for God, and wouldn't you know it, God didn't let him down! God was in everything we saw! We broke that very next service on Wednesday night. Brandon shot up, interrupting Pastor/Dad, and telling the whole church what had been going on in our lives the past few days. He shared how God had made himself real and been in everything. Revival broke out in our church! To sit and tell you all the wonderous things God did even in that first week alone, would be a small book! God showed up, and indeed in a way we could never doubt Him again!

That was over 7 years ago, and God still shows off everyday, proving his realness to us constantly! He tore up all our junky patches. He started over and did things right, like only His perfect hands can! The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become NEW." It didn't say refurbished, patched, or improved... When I found Christ, He made all things NEW!

Sometimes, as a Christian even, I can still get lazy or stubborn, and decide to patch up that little tiny pothole on my own, or instead of giving it to God. (Maybe just a little strip of sealer could do the trick! Nothing to invasive, right)? David had a little sin in his life, and when he didn't give it over to God, it snowballed out of control. It cost him and Bathsheba their baby, and an innocent man his life. We are not good enough Christians on our own to handle the problems of life. We weren't made to be sufficient in this area. Our way of "fixing" things is a poor job compared to the one who can make things new. I'm so glad I let the professional handle it, and I hope you will too!