I went through a hobby phase of puzzles. Piece by piece I completed quite a few
puzzles. I came across one that halted
the successes of puzzle completion. Day
after day, I found it difficult to find even one piece to fit. I found any excuse to avoid the area the
puzzle lay; for, each attempt left me a failure.
After months of battling the 1000-piece puzzle, I
did complete the border about an inch into the middle. I knew what image the pieces should
reveal. I knew each piece had its place. I just struggled to find matching pieces to
fill in the image. I gave up!
Trial and tribulations may cause life to shatter in
1000 pieces right before your very eyes.
After the dust settles, you work diligently to pick up the pieces, one
by one. Frantically placing them to your
best ability, each day seems to fall short of completion. Not giving up, you reach for a few pieces and
place them to fit ‘pretty good’ with the surrounding pieces. Walking through the darkened days, the pieces
slip, falling amongst the others.
Efforts fail to pick up the pieces of life. Emotions run rampant, leaving no place to
find peace. The lack of solid ground to
stand brings us to a point of giving up.
Reaching for anything to numb the feelings of failure; we succumb to
addictions, running away from the shattered life, hiding out, etc. We gather all the pieces in a pile and shove
them deep down. It is just too much to
handle. We put on a fake smile and hide
the shattered life inside. We give up!
While I continue writing my story, I come to
portions that reveal a little girl looking at the shattered pieces of a life
once known as comfort, joy, peace and love.
The little girl remained empty, void of any emotion. . .except one. The little girl felt anger. The anger dwelled inside and grew with each
attempt to put the pieces back together.
She remembered what the image looked like from all the years prior; but,
continued to fail in efforts of putting it all back together. Energy poured out of the girl to fix the
broken life.
As the days of failure passed, the image began to
fade. The little girl could not see
comfort, joy, peace and love anymore.
She gave up and anger intensified.
The little girl numbed out in any way possible from life. Feeling alone with the shattered pieces of life,
she just went through the motions expecting the worse out of all
situations.
My dear friends, if you feel like this little girl
explained above, I am here to tell you there is Hope. I continued to hold on to the faded image of
the life once known. In efforts to get
back there, I missed out on a lot in life.
I exhausted myself reaching for a life I would never attain on my
own. I shoved pieces together just to
feel like I was on the right track or that I knew how to fix it. Repeatedly, I was wrong. This left me with more anger and in a deeper
pit of darkness.
In writing my story, I have realized the image once
known as a ‘good life’ or ‘perfect family’ does not exist. The reliance placed on others for comfort in
this life cannot be my ‘go to’ in times of trouble. I cannot fix life’s problems and it is not my
job to bring peace amongst the chaos of life.
I pour all this energy into putting the pieces back together of a puzzle
that is not my own. I remain exhausted
sitting in front of the unfinished puzzle.
God knows the end image of our puzzle. He holds the next piece. We must look to Him each day as He hands over
another piece that will continue maturing our walk with Him. Without the piece He holds, we remain at a
standstill, feeling failure and eventually quitting. Don’t quit my dear friends. Take a deep breath, ask Him for today’s piece
and trust in the beautiful image to come.
He will not leave nor forsake. He
will never disappoint. He knows the next
piece; quit searching for it on your own.
Trust Him.
The puzzle remains unfinished as does my own life
puzzle. I know, piece by piece, it will
eventually become complete. I know deep
in my heart, God will do the same for you and me. He will make us whole, mature and complete
piece by piece.
Live life. . .One Day at a
time!
Sheree Craig
