Broken Glasses

Those of you who wear glasses will understand what happened to me last Tuesday. It was morning. I was cleaning my glasses, getting ready to face the day when it happened! The left arm of my glasses snapped off in my hand. "What?" I thought to myself. I couldn't believe it. How could this happen to me? What was I going to do? Putting the glasses on my face with one arm, seemed to work. I was able to see. As long as I didn't get to wild, they would stay in place. But...

So I thought to myself, "I can fix this." I started to think, to plan, to figure out how to fix my glasses so that I could continue going on like nothing had happened. When Penny got up, I told her what happened. Her first thought was that I was going to have to make an appointment with the eye doctor to see what he could do. "I can fix it," I told her.

So I dug around for the super glue. It took a little while but I finally found it. Taking the glue, the arm of my glasses, my glasses themselves and I fixed them. A spot of glue, holding the arm in place, I proudly waited the time for the glue to dry and ta-da! The arm fell off. Really? It was supposed to hold. I had it all planned out. It was supposed to work.

So what was I going to do? I had it worked out. I needed better glue. Off to the office I went. I didn't say anything to anyone other than Penny that it happened. After Easter's opened here in town, I went down and looked over the different types of glue they had. After perusing through the dozens of types of super glue, maximum glue and extra super strong glue, I chose one. Buying it, I went back to the office, very proud of myself. Sitting down at my desk, I opened the glue, held the arm, the glasses and put on the drop that was needed. And...ta-da! The arm fell off. Really? What was wrong? I chose wrong. I should have chosen a stronger glue.

So off I went, back to Easter's and bought the better glue. (Just so you know, I had a meeting between the first fixing and the return to Easter's. I would go through the meeting with one arm on my glasses, acting like nothing was different.) Buying this extra strong glue, I was back at the office. Glue, arm, glasses, holding and ta-da! It worked! The arm held. I was so proud of myself. I had fixed my glasses. I had done it. Me, not a eye doctor but a pastor, had fixed my glasses.

Strutting like a peacock, I went through the rest of the morning, sure of myself. After going through the rest of the morning, careful not to be too rough with the glasses, I did what was needed. Then I took a look at them again. They were fragile but I was sure it was all right. Putting another small drop on the bond, I waited. And they fell apart! What!? They fell apart. The arm fell off.

I had failed again. Sigh! I could not believe it. I gave in and called the eye doctor for an appointment. It would be the next day. It was getting frustrating without two arms on my glasses so I gave in and did what I did not want to do. I got out the duct tape. The gray tape that holds everything. Tearing it into small strips, I repaired my glasses. It held but looked terrible. At least I could see again.

My point? This is the story of my spiritual life. I go through life, feeling good about myself. I am doing what is good and right. I am not doing anything wild or crazy. I am a good boy, doing what the Lord would have me do. And then, "snap!" Something breaks. I listen to temptation. I fall into some sort of sin. And I think, "I can fix this." I can do what is necessary to make things right again. I make my plans. I do what I am sure will work. I make my life "right" with the Lord.

The truth is, none of this works. I can't make things right with the Lord. I can't fix my sin. No matter what I do, nothing will work. What do I need? I need Jesus Christ to fix me. I need Jesus to make me whole again. No amount of glue, no tape, nothing I do can change what happened. Only Jesus Christ, through His grace and mercy, can fix me. Only He can forgive my sin. Only He can make me right again.

It thought to myself, isn't that exactly the problem? We think we can fix our spiritual lives on our own. And we can't. We figure that we can do that which is necessary to make our lives right before the Lord. And we cannot. Period. Plain and simple.

So what do we do? We trust not in ourselves but in our Lord. We turn not to our strength but to His. We live in faith, strengthened through Word and Sacrament, forgiven through His blood, and blessed as a child of God.

Broken glasses, broken lives - only One who can fix us. Jesus Christ. Praise be to Him for all He has done and continues to for me in my life, for you, in your life.