#38

DO A 1000-PIECE JIGSAW PUZZLE

This has been the most challenging and most enlightening task to date. Some of you are thinking, "Really?! A 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle was the most challenging." Yeah... it was.

It wasn't the actual puzzle. That was time consuming but not exceptionally difficult. What was most challenging were the realizations I had during the process. I mean, think about life and relationships as you would approach a puzzle. Better yet... think about the approach to the puzzle as if it were from God.

You get this box with a wonderful picture on the front (your life). You have NO idea how many pieces are necessary to complete the puzzle but you are pretty sure that the 10 tiny pieces God has included will not complete the entire picture.

At first you start off great... After all, my five year old can complete a 10-piece puzzle. You begin to set up the boundaries for the picture and then try to start matching up pieces that go together. As soon as it seems you have run out of pieces, God throws a few more in to help you see a more accurate picture of the completed puzzle. Trouble arises when you see a piece that looks like it completes one section of your puzzle. It seems like it fits. Everything about the piece makes you think that it fits. You try a number of different rotations to insert the piece and it just does not fit. But you think, "It has to go there. That's the only place it can belong."
As much as you hate to admit it, you move the piece aside. It has a place somewhere. You know that but it is not where you thought (or hoped) it would be. Your puzzle is still left incomplete. Apply this to any aspect of your life (a job, a friendship, a relationship, whatever). It's almost like a toddler. You want it done and you want it done YESTERDAY...Instant gratification is such a killer, isn't it?

What I realize is that instant gratification is just that...instant. It's rarely long lasting and it definitely does not fill you as much as something you have worked at for awhile. We (or maybe just I) tend to want something at the very second I think about it and never give it sincere thought past the moment it would satisfy whatever momentary desire I have. In fact, if I think over the last few years, I can recall specific instances where I wanted something, got it and then realized that I really did not want it in the first place. Maybe God is trying to get me to slow down a little. Maybe He is trying to grow me up in places of my life where I have always faltered in the past. Maybe He is getting me to realize (slowly) that He really does know what He is doing. ;)

I am slowly changing. Not for the worst. Not for the better. For the best. He is doing things in me that I could never imagine. He is training me out of some bad habits. It took years for me to turn into a woman I did not recognize (nor would I want to if given the choice). Now, I am slowly turning into the woman I was meant to be. The woman that He created me to be. And I like it.

TASK #38...COMPLETED 3/1