Fix It or Face It
Key Thought | Jesus doesn’t always remove the hard thing. Sometimes He invites us to face it with Him.
Key Scripture | “Then Jesus told him, ‘Follow me.’” —John 21:19
There’s something deeply human in all of us that wants a “Fix-It-Jesus.”
We want quick answers, immediate relief, and clean resolutions. We want God to step into the middle of our pain, failure, confusion, or disappointment and make everything easier as quickly as possible.
And sometimes He does.
But often, Jesus does something deeper than fixing. He invites us to face the very thing we’ve been trying to avoid, with Him beside us.
That’s exactly what happened with Peter.
After the resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the shore after breakfast. The same Peter who denied Him three times. The same Peter who had failed publicly and painfully. You can almost feel the weight in the conversation as Jesus asks him three separate times, “Do you love me?”
Peter wanted restoration without revisiting the wound. But Jesus lovingly brought him back to the very place of failure—not to shame him, but to heal him.
Peter was saying, “Can we fix this?”
Jesus was saying, “No, Peter… we’re going to face this.”
That’s important because healing often begins where honesty begins.
So many of us spend our lives asking God to remove discomfort while avoiding the deeper work He wants to do inside of us. We want Him to fix the anxiety without facing the fear underneath it. Fix the relationship without facing the bitterness or pride. Fix the exhaustion without facing the pace we’ve been living at.
But Jesus doesn’t only want to rescue us from hard things. He wants to form us through them.
And what’s beautiful is that Jesus never asks Peter to face it alone. Every hard conversation is wrapped in love. Every correction is covered in grace. Jesus restores Peter while simultaneously calling him forward.
Then, almost immediately, Jesus begins speaking honestly about Peter’s future suffering and sacrifice. And Peter does what many of us do instinctively; he looks at someone else.
“What about him, Lord?”
Comparison is often our attempt to escape our own story.
We look around wondering why someone else’s life seems easier, why their prayers seem answered faster, or why their path feels lighter than ours. But Jesus gently redirects Peter’s attention:
“What is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
In other words: Don’t get distracted trying to understand someone else’s journey when I’m asking you to trust Me with yours.
The invitation of Jesus has never been “figure everything out.” It has always been “follow Me.”
And sometimes following Jesus means walking into hard conversations, uncomfortable healing, uncertain seasons, or surrendered obedience while trusting that He is still good in the middle of it all.
Is there something in your life you keep asking God to “fix” that He may be asking you to face with Him instead?
Rather than running from it or distracting yourself from it, bring it honestly before Jesus today. He is not trying to shame you. He is trying to heal and strengthen you.
And maybe the next faithful step is simply this: “Jesus, I’ll follow You here too.”
Prayer | Jesus, thank You for loving me enough not to leave me where I am. Help me stop running from the places You want to heal. Give me courage to face hard things with honesty and trust, knowing that You walk with me in every step. Teach me to keep my eyes on You instead of comparing my journey to others. Amen.
Reflection | What situation in your life are you trying to escape that Jesus may be inviting you to walk through with Him?
Key Scripture | “Then Jesus told him, ‘Follow me.’” —John 21:19
There’s something deeply human in all of us that wants a “Fix-It-Jesus.”
We want quick answers, immediate relief, and clean resolutions. We want God to step into the middle of our pain, failure, confusion, or disappointment and make everything easier as quickly as possible.
And sometimes He does.
But often, Jesus does something deeper than fixing. He invites us to face the very thing we’ve been trying to avoid, with Him beside us.
That’s exactly what happened with Peter.
After the resurrection, Jesus meets Peter on the shore after breakfast. The same Peter who denied Him three times. The same Peter who had failed publicly and painfully. You can almost feel the weight in the conversation as Jesus asks him three separate times, “Do you love me?”
Peter wanted restoration without revisiting the wound. But Jesus lovingly brought him back to the very place of failure—not to shame him, but to heal him.
Peter was saying, “Can we fix this?”
Jesus was saying, “No, Peter… we’re going to face this.”
That’s important because healing often begins where honesty begins.
So many of us spend our lives asking God to remove discomfort while avoiding the deeper work He wants to do inside of us. We want Him to fix the anxiety without facing the fear underneath it. Fix the relationship without facing the bitterness or pride. Fix the exhaustion without facing the pace we’ve been living at.
But Jesus doesn’t only want to rescue us from hard things. He wants to form us through them.
And what’s beautiful is that Jesus never asks Peter to face it alone. Every hard conversation is wrapped in love. Every correction is covered in grace. Jesus restores Peter while simultaneously calling him forward.
Then, almost immediately, Jesus begins speaking honestly about Peter’s future suffering and sacrifice. And Peter does what many of us do instinctively; he looks at someone else.
“What about him, Lord?”
Comparison is often our attempt to escape our own story.
We look around wondering why someone else’s life seems easier, why their prayers seem answered faster, or why their path feels lighter than ours. But Jesus gently redirects Peter’s attention:
“What is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
In other words: Don’t get distracted trying to understand someone else’s journey when I’m asking you to trust Me with yours.
The invitation of Jesus has never been “figure everything out.” It has always been “follow Me.”
And sometimes following Jesus means walking into hard conversations, uncomfortable healing, uncertain seasons, or surrendered obedience while trusting that He is still good in the middle of it all.
Is there something in your life you keep asking God to “fix” that He may be asking you to face with Him instead?
Rather than running from it or distracting yourself from it, bring it honestly before Jesus today. He is not trying to shame you. He is trying to heal and strengthen you.
And maybe the next faithful step is simply this: “Jesus, I’ll follow You here too.”
Prayer | Jesus, thank You for loving me enough not to leave me where I am. Help me stop running from the places You want to heal. Give me courage to face hard things with honesty and trust, knowing that You walk with me in every step. Teach me to keep my eyes on You instead of comparing my journey to others. Amen.
Reflection | What situation in your life are you trying to escape that Jesus may be inviting you to walk through with Him?
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