Just Fix It

"Poppa, come get me!" she yelled. "No, Korie, I'm busy. You can get down by yourself." "Come get me, Poppa!" my granddaughter insisted. No way was she going to make that treacherous trip down the steps of the storage shed by herself.

After hearing the third plea for help, my darlin' husband stopped trimming the shrubbery and walked over to rescue her.

Now, what was so dangerous about a six-year-old walking down some steps?

Nothing.

It's what she saw that scared her. When she got tired of playing inside the shed and started to leave, she noticed that there was a two- or three-inch gap between the top step and the floor of the building.

She saw this slight separation, and she must have imagined herself crossing the threshhold and falling and getting hurt really bad, and then she would be scarred forever and ever.

She wouldn't have gotten a scar for life or been hurt or taken a bad fall. There wasn't enough room for her to fall.

Her Poppa tried to tell her that. He knew she would be fine. "Come on, Korie. Don't look at the step--look at me."

"Please, Pop."

He coaxed her again. She nodded no.

Exasperated she said, "Poppa, just fix this so I won't have to deal with it."

That's exactly what he did. He swooped her up in his strong arms and set her safely on the ground.

Wouldn't it be great to have God solve all of our problems that way? Often, He does rush to our rescue.

But in other situations, He doesn't swoop us up. Instead, He chooses to teach us lessons to help us grow in Him.

Like the one about focus.

Obviously, my granddaughter experienced a few focusing problems, but so have I. I'm learning that sometimes I focus too much on me. I fixate on my circumstances and my wants and my needs. I see only what's right in front of me--the gap between where I'm standing and the place where I want to go.

The longer I look, the greater the gap seems to grow. Fear sets in. I could fall or fail and get hurt really, really bad, and get some scars too.

Or I can change my focus.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what it unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4: 18).

If we adjust our focus from it's all about me to it's all about loving God and sharing Him and obeying Him and being with Him for all of eternity, then, sweet girl, we can do anything. We can bridge the gap between where we are and where He wants to take us.

We can walk down a set of uneven steps and not fall.

Sometimes as we fix our focus, we realize that we don't need to be rescued. We discover that with His help, we can deal with it after all.