Life's ZUPLEZ

4/29/09 Puzzle Solutions
Jigsaw puzzles frustrate me---bringing words to mind like tense and failure. My friend, JoLynn, loves them. Probably words like calming and a welcoming challenge come to her mind.
We even approach the puzzles differently. I check out the picture on the box, turn over all the pieces and shake out all the gray dust from the box, sort those “right side up” pieces according to color, search for the straight edged ones and begin to put together the border. I always begin by focusing on the end product.
JoLynn, on the other hand doesn’t even look at the picture. I don’t know if that’s part of the intrigue or just her way of enjoying the journey of “jigsawing” and being delighted by the end result, whatever that may be. She looks at the shape of each piece---probably seeing patterns in all those knobs and holes---that look like innies and outies to me. Recently she even worked a puzzle with out a border---just knobs and holes---no uniform straight edge. That’s beyond my comprehension.

While I approach the puzzle with the idea to hurry and get it over with, hoping to find satisfaction in completion, she enjoys the journey along the way. She’s actually calm, almost tranquil as she enjoys the “means” to the end of her puzzle. She’s told me that her mind can be elsewhere, sorting our some of life’s urgencies while she’s assembling the puzzle---that’s really beyond me!

Our lives can seem like one big puzzle and we all approach them in our own way. However, watching her I’ve seen some truths, not only in her expertise with a jigsaw puzzle, but also in her approach to life. She knows the end to her life will be eternity with the Lord. This allows her, in both the game and her life’s walk, to enjoy the journey.
Just like she doesn’t try to force a piece of a puzzle where it doesn’t fit the total picture, she doesn’t force herself and her desires above the Lord or those she loves. JoLynn knows well that each puzzle piece only works perfectly in one spot---no matter how much you twist it and turn it. It will only truly “fit” where the puzzle creator intended it to be placed. On that puzzle board, she knows that and is content with the unseen, knowing there will be a beautiful picture that she will see when it is finished. In her life, it’s His plan not hers that she follows, one moment at a time---just like she follows the lead of those puzzle pieces one at a time, piece by piece. She doesn’t compartmentalize all the puzzle pieces and she doesn’t compartmentalize her secular life from her spiritual life--it all works together for good, because she loves the Lord and trusts Him for the unseen outcome---His masterpiece. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
(Hebrews 11:1)

Too often, we make life more complex than it needs to be. In all our busyness of trying to “get it right”, our way, we can become fragmented and frustrated. We wear ourselves out trying to force spirituality. It’s really just simple faith that we need. As we give it to Him, in trust, piece-by-piece, He creates the masterpiece---it’s His work! It’s when we try to take it out of His hands---forcing the pieces of our life to look like they all fit together for good---that we run into problems.
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)