In “When You Can’t Fix It,” the final message in our That’s What She Said series, we return to the story of Hannah and discover what it means to love people well when we can’t solve their pain. When someone we love is hurting, our instinct is often to find a solution, offer advice, or make the pain go away. But sometimes, the people we love don’t need us to fix it—they need us to be present.
Hannah was hurting. She was grieving, misunderstood, and carrying a pain that those around her could not fully understand. Elkanah couldn’t fix it. Eli misunderstood it. But God heard her. Hannah’s story reminds us that gratitude doesn’t cancel grief. We can trust God and still have questions. We can have faith and still cry. We can worship and still hurt.
This message challenges us to look beyond behavior and see the pain behind it, to listen instead of always offering solutions, and to remember that we don’t have to understand someone’s pain to help carry it.
Then we look to Jesus, who knew He could raise Lazarus from the dead, yet still wept with those who were grieving. Jesus shows us that sometimes presence comes before the solution.
When we can’t fix it, we can still listen. We can still see. We can still pray. We can still stay. And sometimes, simply being there is the most Jesus-like thing we can do.
