Good Enough: Lots of things can be medicine

“Blessed are you who live with courage, fixing what it is in your reach, praying about what is not, and loving, still.” (From Good Enough by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie)

Who doesn’t want a quick fix for something that is broken? A magic pill to cure an illness, heal a strained relationship, repair a flawed system, or end a tragic war. Often, we like to offer our simple solutions to complicated problems, but of course, there is almost never an easy or quick fix.

On the third Sunday of Lent, we will explore a story Jesus told about a fig tree that was not producing any fruit and needed careful tending to be healthy again. It was not so much a story about agriculture but about the time and care it takes to fix what is broken. It is about God being a God of second chances and Jesus as a gardener who sees the beauty of a tree that appears to be all but dead. It is a story that teaches us to be open to new ways of thinking about what we need to be healthy and how we can help each other and our world to solve complicated problems.