Ripped Jeans And Messy Lives

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. - Psalm 34:18

A few years ago, I was getting ready for work and decided to wear my favorite Old Navy black jeans. They were my favorite at the time not only because they were black and therefore flattering, but because they had an elastic waistband, which was extremely underrated at the time.

When I put the jeans on, I noticed a little hole in the inseam of the inside of my pant leg. But it was a very tiny hole and it wasn’t super noticeable, so I wore the jeans to work anyway.

Fast forward to an hour later when I arrived at work. I park my car, open the car door, step one foot out of the car, and I hear this horrible ripping sound. I immediately looked down and I noticed the hole in my pants had gone from being smaller than a dime to being the size of a piece of sushi.

At that point, I did what any logical human being would do, and I took a black Sharpie out of my purse and began to color the skin that was peeking through the hole in my pants in hopes that my pale skin wouldn’t be so noticeable against the black pants. I was actually pretty proud of this innovation initially. I thought I’d fixed the problem.

But as I moved and walked throughout the day, my pants would shift, and I would have to go to the bathroom and color more of my leg with the Sharpie, trying to keep the hole a secret. By the end of the day, I had a giant blob of black permanent marker on the inside of my leg that was a bear to get off when I got home from work.

I learned a very important lesson from this whole ripped jeans debacle. I learned that I shouldn’t try to fix something I’m not trained or qualified to fix. Instead of going to someone who could fix the problem, I was stubborn and impatient and didn’t want to ask for help, and I ended up with a giant Sharpie blob on my leg and pants ripped beyond repair.

I would venture to say we’ve all been guilty of trying to fix things on our own at one point or another. We think we can just suck it up and move on and everything will be fine. Or we think if we just ignore the pain, or ignore the person who caused the pain, the hurt will go away. Or we think, “God’s got so many more important things on His plate. I don’t want to bother Him with this.” But in reality, none of these tactics work. None of these methods of self-mending bring the kind of healing and restoration we’re looking for. Only the Lord can give us that.

We serve a God who is a healer. He’s a mender. A fixer-upper. He is the only One capable of fully and completely healing our brokenness. And not only is He a capable Healer, but He is an unconditional Healer. We don’t have to prove anything to Him. We don’t have to earn His attention. We don’t have to clean up our wounds first before He sews them up. We just have to draw near to Him and be openhanded with our brokenness…be openhanded with our disappointment, our frustration, our anger, our confusion, our unmet expectations. And He will do the rest.