Have you ever worked at a place where every time something broke, the quick fix was duct tape? This is also known as the handyman’s survival tape! I have. In the early 90s, I worked in a curtain factory and joked that it was “time for the duct tape.” 

We all know that is only a temporary fix and will only hold so long until it breaks again. The machine needs to be overhauled, and new parts added before it will hold permanently.

If you are feeling you are in a hopeless situation, call on God and ask Him to send people into your life who can help you. Reach out for help, but start with God!

This world is in desperate need of a fixer and healer. You can’t turn on the news without hearing another broken story. Recently, I saw a news feed where a trucker hit a car in the rear, killing all five of the passengers: a father, mother, and their three young children. The family was going to leave the next day on a missionary trip. When the judge asked the trucker if he had money to post bond, the man replied, “No judge, I am one month away from losing my home and car.”

Apparently this trucker was under so much stress and pressure that he was not focused on his driving, which resulted in the accident that took five young lives. Now his life is also shattered!

It is sad to see people enduring hardship and pain. People’s lives can be changed in just a moment, as this trucker’s life was. Many turn to drugs, material things, using their temporary band-aid or duct tape to escape and fix the pain! Here is a 2016 Ohio drug statistics chart showing number of deaths from overdoses. It is staggering, and it's on the rise.

Recently, a local man just sat down on a train track and was killed by a train. What pushed this man over the edge to do such a thing? How could things become so hopeless?

I understand people becoming broken and overwhelmed in life! I, too, have gone through those valleys. While in those valleys, God worked miracles in my life just when I felt it was the most hopeless. I am a walking miracle!

God is a miracle worker, and nothing you or I may go through is too great or big for Him to solve and fix. God is the healer of all the brokenhearted! He does not place a band-aid or the handyman’s survival tape over your heart to fix it.

He nurtures us with His healing Holy Spirit to move us forward! He is ever so close to encourage us along the way. In Psalms 147:3, the psalmist states, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (New International Version). He heals not with duct tape but with His powerful Spirit.

Aren’t you glad that God is a healer? It doesn’t matter what is broken in your life today. Nothing is too great for Him. When He does a work of healing in our lives, He makes us better than we were before. God’s hope with His nurturing Spirit is to bring us complete healing, while doing it in a very tender way.

If you are feeling you are in a hopeless situation, call on God and ask Him to send people into your life who can help you. Reach out for help, but start with God!

Even the trucker’s life (even though he may face life in prison) is not over if he seeks God for help and repents. God can give him courage, peace and strength to endure what he may have to endure. And the family who died in the crash, it is not over for them either! They are not forgotten by God, because they will be resurrected and live again.

As we all trudge through life, remember my favorite scripture: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

Don’t grab for the quick fix, duct tape, which comes in the form of drugs, material things or whatever else for a temporary fix. Instead, reach up and grab on to God’s hand. Nothing is too great for Him!