Piece by Piece

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