Top Five Reasons I Like Working Puzzles

Well, you may have noticed I did my first 1000 piece puzzle over my Christmas break.  Not that I had never done a 1000 piece puzzle before, but I had never done a puzzle before.  My mom likes to do puzzles, so growing up she would get one going in our kitchen and I would work on it a little bit here and there.  Now that I have finished not only one but two 1000 piece puzzles I know that my mom was the one who put together most of the puzzles "we" did. :) And, it's not that easy, actually.  At one point I was thinking, "I really need an adult to come help me with this!" Ha, guess even when I'm almost 42 I'm still looking for an adult, and then it hits me that I am the adult! This possibly says something about me, but that is not what this post is about.  This post is entitled "The Top Five Reasons I Like Working Puzzles."  Here we go, in order from #5 to #1!

5.  It takes perserverance to put together an 1000 piece puzzle.  It is challenging, and you have to really stick with it!

4.  It takes a lot of patience to put together an 1000 piece puzzle.  This is no microwave dinner puzzle!  No, this is a made-from-scratch, spend-all-day-cooking dinner!  And those kind of dinners are always better than microwave ones!

3.  It takes problem solving to put together an 1000 piece puzzle.  That first puzzle I put together was really challenging.  The pictures on the pieces were no help at all!  Absolutely none!  (OK, maybe they did help a little bit...)  Eventually I realized I was going to have to try a new strategy if I wanted to get that puzzle put together.  So, I ended up sorting out the pieces according their shape, and that actually helped and worked.  Even when I had less than 100 pieces left I still had to use the puzzle piece's shape to figure out where it went.  The puzzle was that hard!

2.  If I was able to talk someone in to helping me, it gave us a lot of time to talk.  Putting together a puzzle with someone is so much better than watching TV with them, because you can just sit and talk.  And laugh!  And be silly together!  I love that about putting together puzzles.  It's a slow, simple activity and gives you time to talk with each other.

1.  And the number one thing I like about working puzzles is finishing the puzzle!  Wow!  It's an amazing feeling!  (And, of course, then I can start another one!)

I think churches are kind of like 1000 piece puzzles.  Each person is a piece of that puzzle, and without that person there the puzzle can never be complete.  It is so cool to start out with 1000 pieces that look random.  They don't really look like they go together at all.  And then slowly, meticulously, one piece hooks to another, which hooks to another, which hooks to another.  Sometimes when you work a puzzle you get a whole big chunk of pieces together, but they don't hook into the whole puzzle.  Then, amazingly, you see where that chunk connects!  It really does fit in with the rest of the puzzle, even when it looked like it never would.  You may feel like you don't have any where that you hook into at church, but guess what, you do!  You are a valuable piece, and without you, the puzzle can never be complete!

It just looks like a bunch of random pieces in a box, but in reality they all fit together! :)

Sometimes I was looking and looking for a particular piece.  I actually would think it was not there; it was lost.  But, wouldn't you know it?  A little bit later I would find it.  Maybe that same day or maybe the next.  Or, maybe not until the very end!  Sometimes I would think a piece would be easy to spot, and it wasn't.  I would try piece after piece to no avail, until finally I would find the one that connected to the four surrounding pieces.  It took time and perseverance, but it was worth it to see that finished products.  You may feel that way.  You may feel like you don't fit anywhere at church, but I promise you, you do!  Or, it may seem like you fit somewhere in your church, and then you find out you don't fit there after all.  Don't give up; try another spot.  At one church I went to I ended up working in the church bookstore, and I never thought I would want to do that!  I made so many friends, and I loved it!  But, if you would have asked me, I never would have chosen to volunteer there.  They had a need so I decided to do it, and it was the perfect spot for me...my piece hooked in perfectly there! :)

Just like working a puzzle it may take perseverance to find your spot.  It may take patience.  It will require problem solving.  But, you will build relationships, you will get to talk with people you may not have ever known.  You will get to laugh, sometimes so hard you feel like you just can't breathe!  And, you will get to cry with someone when they're hurting, or have someone there to cry with you when you're hurting.  You won't be alone in life; you'll have someone to walk alongside you.  At one church we attended the pastor would always say, "Do life together!"  I like that!  Go find out where you fit into that amazingly beautiful puzzle.  You are important; your piece is important.  You are part of a beautiful picture, His beautiful plan!  This year I'm going to step out and be a part of it, even when it's scary and even when it's hard!  Because I know it will be worth it in the end! :)

"For there is one body. But it has many parts. Even though it has many parts, they make up one body." I Corinthians 12:12