As I was channel surfing the other day, I paused for a moment and thought about a man who had fixed a problem for me. His name wasn’t Marcus Lemonis; it was A.P. Lindsey, and he was The Fixer decades before Marcus was born.
When Mr. Lindsey returned to El Dorado, Kansas after his stint in the Navy during WWII, he worked for McClure’s Motor Company. A few years later, he opened his own shop—Lindsey’s Body Shop. A.P. was known as a master craftsman and painter, and the man you wanted to put the pieces of your car back together after a wreck.
When the wing-window on my vehicle broke, I dropped it off at Lindsey’s to get it fixed. When I returned a couple of hours later, he said: “Stan, that part was too expensive so I fixed it by making a part out of some of the scrap metal in the shop.” When I examined Lindsey’s work, it was much better than the original.
People like A.P. are a rare breed today—he wasn’t just a part replacer, he was a fixer.
Fixers are people who don’t fume and fuss over the difficulties they face, they simply begin and then do whatever is necessary to finish. Some people make trouble, others make excuses, but fixers make good—they keep their promises.
Even though Lindsey drew his last breath and went on to his reward on December 3, 2010, I still remember that his quiet enthusiasm was contagious, and how it infected the lives of his family and friends.
May God bless us with more men and women who are determined to be fixers—people who are craftsmen with highly honed skills, and fixers like Lindsey who are the iron that sharpens the character of others (Proverbs 22:17) and who seek out opportunities to help those in need (Galatians 6:10).
insightbyseymour 