Puzzled?

   Did you ever build a puzzle? If you are like most “puzzlers,” you probably started with the edge pieces to establish the perimeters first. After the frame, if you followed the “standard procedure” of puzzle assembly, you then began to look for recognizable pieces of a particular object or area of the puzzle. They were distinguishable from all the others by their color and content. Slowly and painstakingly, the masterpiece finally came together to reveal that thing of beauty, message of hope, or incentive for a smile.

   Here’s an interesting question, if your life were a puzzle, what would the pieces look like? Would the edge pieces form a basic recognizable shape, or would they be an oddity that would puzzle the puzzle builder? Would the colors form patterns and schemes to animate their objects, or would they be a menagerie of dissonance? Would the objects found in the puzzle of your life seem organized and in place, or in disarray? Would the finished product make a meaningful statement, or evoke only the blank gaze of onlookers to whom your life gives new meaning to the word “puzzle?”

   On those occasions when my life begins to look like what some people call “modern art,” I am reminded that I am not my own, but have been “bought with a price.” I belong to my Heavenly Father who gives order and meaning to the puzzle of life. God made me a man, and has given instruction as to how men should act. Before God, I made my vows to become a husband; He has prescribed the duties of a husband. God has blessed me with children, and with my sons came His instruction to fathers. God called me to be a pastor, but did not leave me without His instructions for the shepherd.

   Our lives do not have to be distorted and meaningless puzzles. Let’s resolve to know God, to allow Him to set the perimeters, to be all, and only, what He has called us to be, and to live our lives according to His instruction.