Why is it called puzzles? That's the puzzle!
So, I recently finished a puzzle I've been working on for a while now. A 2000 piece puzzle of a harbor in France. It was a really fun puzzle to do, but I'm also kind of nerdy like that. It probably took me at least three times as long to finish the sky as it did to complete the rest of the image. This was partially due to my frustration with the fact that almost all of the sky pieces looked nearly the same. The majority of the time was just me looking at it sitting on my floor, not able to motivate myself enough to finish it.
Anyway, while I was finishing up the last few pieces, I started thinking as I sometimes do. I was thinking about how life is like a giant puzzle. We're all just trying to put the pieces together to form a complete image, a complete life. We find that our lives are full of gaps, missing pieces. Naturally, we try to find the pieces that fit. We just want to feel whole. Maybe we try out a new sport. Or try our hand at painting. Read a book. Learn something new. Build something. Accomplish something. But it doesn't work. At least, not in the way we hope. Sure, there will be some pieces that fit, some gaps filled. We'll begin to feel a little more complete. But it won't be enough. There will still be gaps. Empty spaces remain. We've tried every piece that we have, but nothing fits, nothing fills the hole. So, what do we do? We pick a piece and cram it in there, force it to fit. After all, it's better than feeling empty, right? All too often we have pieces in our lives that don't feel quite right, that we know shouldn't be a part of our lives. But we prefer it to the emptiness, so we pursue it. We hold on to these things in a desperate attempt to feel whole.
But even after all of that, even after cramming in the bits and pieces that you know don't belong just so that you can say "Look at me. I've got it all figured out. I don't need anything else.", you realize that there's still a lot of emptiness. But you also find that you have a lot of extra pieces. A lot that you can give. And guess what? So does everyone else.
Now, I kind of feel like I write a lot about relationships. Maybe too much (especially since I'mprobably for sure not the best choice for advice on the matter). But I promise this won't be all about the ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey relationships I've written about in the past. Believe me, they have their place in this, too. But this idea applies to the good old friendship relationships, the tight (and not so tight) familial relationships, and even the special man-beast relationships we have with our cats and dogs. Okay, maybe not so much that last one. That's a different story. But one thing about human beings is that we thrive on relationships. In the words of Sanctus Real, "We need each other, so what's the fighting for?" Our relationships that we form with each other are a huge part of who we are. It's not so much that we all have our own individual puzzles, but more like someone took a whole bunch of puzzles, mixed all the pieces together and then divided them up between all of us. We need each other if we ever want to feel complete. And maybe there's something about you that helps fill someone else's life. In turn, they may just make your life more complete. And remember those pieces in your life that really don't belong, the ones you just crammed in there? Someone will come along and help you see that they shouldn't be there and help you find something that should. You need to get rid of those pieces and trust that the spaces will be filled by others in your life.
Sometimes you'll think you've found the right pieces. Sometimes a piece will fit if you just remove a few neighboring pieces. Sometimes they'll even fit with the pieces that are already there. But sometimes when you're making a puzzle, you don't realize that a piece isn't right until you try to fill in the surrounding pieces and can't. You'll have pieces that you know belong that will make it obvious that the one you thought was meant to be there belongs elsewhere. Sometimes people will leave your life and take some of their pieces with them, leaving you feeling empty where you once felt whole. But just as puzzle pieces aren't all the same, there is variety in the figurative puzzle pieces of life. Some are tied to a person and leave when they do. A listening ear, a helping hand, a caring heart. But others become a permanent part of your life. You'll always have the memories, the impressions left on you. Nobody can take all of their pieces when they go. Everyone you meet effects your view on life.
But even with all of your friends and family, even with all of the people that you'll ever meet, even with all of the people that you'll never meet, you won't be able to complete your puzzle. Because there are some things in life that no person can ever give you. No person can. But God can. The perfect love that we all seek, the inconceivable forgiveness that we all need, the matchless sacrifice that none of us deserve. The grace, mercy and salvation that only Christ can offer us, these are the things that are absolutely necessary for completeness. Without Him, you will always be searching for a way to fill the void in your life. It amazes me how much this idea is evident in the mainstream secular world. We see it in the way that society treats money, marriage and morals. "You aren't happy? Well, that's because your husband doesn't love you enough, your job doesn't pay well enough, your social life isn't fun enough. You need to leave him and get a better one. You need to work harder and get that promotion. You need to loosen up and get crazy" But nothing we can do will ever match what Christ does for us. We will never feel completely whole without Him.
So, I made the mistake of trying to write this post from my phone. I managed to lose nearly all my work twice before I finally decided to write it down on paper and then type it up on my computer. So, it's not quite what I wanted it to be in the beginning, but hopefully it can still speak to someone. Like always, comments, critiques & responses are more than welcome.
But even after all of that, even after cramming in the bits and pieces that you know don't belong just so that you can say "Look at me. I've got it all figured out. I don't need anything else.", you realize that there's still a lot of emptiness. But you also find that you have a lot of extra pieces. A lot that you can give. And guess what? So does everyone else.
Now, I kind of feel like I write a lot about relationships. Maybe too much (especially since I'm
Sometimes you'll think you've found the right pieces. Sometimes a piece will fit if you just remove a few neighboring pieces. Sometimes they'll even fit with the pieces that are already there. But sometimes when you're making a puzzle, you don't realize that a piece isn't right until you try to fill in the surrounding pieces and can't. You'll have pieces that you know belong that will make it obvious that the one you thought was meant to be there belongs elsewhere. Sometimes people will leave your life and take some of their pieces with them, leaving you feeling empty where you once felt whole. But just as puzzle pieces aren't all the same, there is variety in the figurative puzzle pieces of life. Some are tied to a person and leave when they do. A listening ear, a helping hand, a caring heart. But others become a permanent part of your life. You'll always have the memories, the impressions left on you. Nobody can take all of their pieces when they go. Everyone you meet effects your view on life.
But even with all of your friends and family, even with all of the people that you'll ever meet, even with all of the people that you'll never meet, you won't be able to complete your puzzle. Because there are some things in life that no person can ever give you. No person can. But God can. The perfect love that we all seek, the inconceivable forgiveness that we all need, the matchless sacrifice that none of us deserve. The grace, mercy and salvation that only Christ can offer us, these are the things that are absolutely necessary for completeness. Without Him, you will always be searching for a way to fill the void in your life. It amazes me how much this idea is evident in the mainstream secular world. We see it in the way that society treats money, marriage and morals. "You aren't happy? Well, that's because your husband doesn't love you enough, your job doesn't pay well enough, your social life isn't fun enough. You need to leave him and get a better one. You need to work harder and get that promotion. You need to loosen up and get crazy" But nothing we can do will ever match what Christ does for us. We will never feel completely whole without Him.
So, I made the mistake of trying to write this post from my phone. I managed to lose nearly all my work twice before I finally decided to write it down on paper and then type it up on my computer. So, it's not quite what I wanted it to be in the beginning, but hopefully it can still speak to someone. Like always, comments, critiques & responses are more than welcome.
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