Bumpuzzled

Dear Faith Family,

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope, (Jeremiah 29:11). 

“It’ll be easy.”  It only has 300 pieces.  “You’ll finish that one in no time.”  And so it began.  Box top off.  Pieces spread on the table.  And then a thought flashed through my mind.  What if someone put the pieces of one puzzle into the box of another puzzle.  In other words, what if the picture on the box doesn’t match the puzzle pieces contained therein?! 

Then what?  Confusion.  The contrast between the actual pieces and the picture are sure to create perplexity and confusion.  Frustration.  When the pieces of the puzzle don’tconstruct the picture on the box, frustration is sure to come knocking.  Decouragement (a word borrowed from one of the Heisman greats, maybe Herschel Walker?).  If confusion gives way to long term frustration, discouragement isn’t far behind.  Eventually we might just be inclined to return the pieces of the puzzle…somewhere. 

What’s the point?  It occurs to me that some of us are attempting to assemble the “pieces” of our lives according to a picture of our own drawing.  In other words, we’re trying to make the people, places, and circumstances of our lives fit a picture of our own design.  Could it be that we’ve got the wrong box?  Could it be that our “pieces” actually belong in another box, another picture, another story? 

Monday it was Kenneth, the Tipsy Taco waiter at table #18.  Yesterday it was another hiker on the Appalachian Trail just a few grueling steps from the North Carolina / Tennessee state line.  Today…?  Each was a piece of many that God chose to include in His box, His puzzle, His picture, His story.  And I got to be included!  How cool is that?! 

I confess that sometimes I still find myself looking at the wrong picture.  That’s when the “pieces” don’t make sense, prove frustrating, and lead to “decouragement.”  What picture are you looking at? 

Although Jeremiah 29:11 was written to specific people in a specific time, the picture of our God is timeless.  He has His picture, His box, and daily He’s putting together the pieces of His puzzle.  That we get to be a piece of His puzzle is just a bit overwhelming! 

Back to His puzzle,

Pastor Karl