The other morning a worker walked into my office. I complimented her on the new scarf she had knitted. She thanked me, turned toward the door to head to her work station.  “Hold up”, I called out. My gaze was fixated on the back of her shoes.

“What’s up with the heel of your shoes. Do you need help in buying a new pair”?

“Oh, no”, she replied. Her chuckle indicated this wasn’t the first time she had been asked this question. “I can’t bear to let go of these comfy shoes. When the heel areas fell apart, I started to duct tape the parts that were broken and torn.”

Are you using duct tape to repair broken and torn moments in your life?

I have a shelf lined with duct tape moments. We are creatures of habit and letting go of comfy situations, even if they are broken, can be difficult. The easy fix is to pull out the duct tape to cover our brokenness and hurt. And if the first layer of duct tape doesn’t work, we will often apply a second, sometimes a third layer.

God longs to peel away those self-applied layers of duct tape.

Duct tape has been dubbed the ‘fix-all’; but it is only a temporary fix. Jesus is the permanent fix and longs to peel away our self-applied bandages. Sometimes we can’t fix the broken and we can’t repair the seams in our life that ravel and fray. But Jesus can.

“Some people see broken things and say, get the duct tape. Jesus sees broken people and says, get the cross.” ~Denise Marks~

Know when to trade-in the comfortable shoes of life.

My worker has no intention of trading her duct-taped shoes for something better. She is content applying continual layers of duct tape to hold together her footsteps in life.  But at some point the duct tape will erode and no longer bind together the broken parts. What then?

God does not intend for us to go through life using duct tape. In the spiritual world duct tape does not bind up our wounds.

“He heals their broken hearts and bandages their wounds.” (Psalms 147:3)

If there are wounds in your heart you are helpless to heal, you only need to call out to Jesus. The bandages of God heal, rather than hide, the source of our brokenness. It is up to you to lay down the duct tape and invite God to heal your brokenness.