What is “Slow Repair”?

I live on the side of a city full of half-upgraded houses with dusty cars in dire need of a mechanic’s touch.  It’s the side of town constantly displaying the neediness most attempt to hide behind a freshly painted smile or polished answers to probing question sent our way.  Privacy fences or a well-manicured lawn can’t hide how slowly people are forced to repair the damage done by the last storm or the long harsh years on this side of the city.  The repairs are in full view as progress moves at a sluggish pace across months and even years.  Things are half-broken or half-fixed depending on whether you live on this side of the city or not.

We moved to this side of town so I could live closer to the seminary education I was finishing.  In the beginning, it was easy for me to drive through our neighborhood as if I was a “temporary resident” just on a pit stop until I got back to the other side of town.  But that delusion crumbled the week both cars broke down and sat in our driveway because “car repair” was a budget entry our bank account couldn’t reach.  I looked around and realized I was needy just like everyone else.  The blinders were off.

Most of us believers in Jesus need the same moment to happen spiritually.  We walk into worship gatherings on Sundays either hiding our brokenness or blind to it.  We either hide while we hope for a quick and private spiritual fix from the pastor’s latest sermon or we blindly limp along as the Christian equivalent of The Emperor’s New Clothes.  No matter how long we have followed Jesus, how proud we are of our theology, or attending a certain church we are all in the progress of a “slow repair” called sanctification.

The truth is, we all are living on that side of town this side of the Lord “putting the world to rights”.  If we are honest, our sorrows and sins are not as far behind us as we wish.  We are always in the midst of a gloriously slow repair at the hands of a God who calls us: child, friend, bride, and suffering saint.  The next Sunday we walk into a worship gathering should feel like a Welcome to the Neighborhood party of a hopeful community in constant repair.