Education
Another Lesson Learned After quite a few years of living and learning I have discovered that life lessons can be gleaned from both unusual and unexpected situations. For that reason, in every moment that God gives us breath we must open eyes, ears, minds and hearts to recognize when and where God is leading us through the people and happenings that he brings into our lives. In the winter months I enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles and I am constantly on the lookout for challenging ones. I don’t just look for puzzles with a lot of pieces but also those that have but some unique characteristic that set it apart from others – maybe fewer colors or repeated patterns or blended scenes. These puzzles help me relax my mind from the stress of the day yet challenge me to stay more focused than reading, especially when I am tired. In addition, I can work for a period of time and can actually measure if I have accomplished something, which is not always true with my work at school. Recently I found a puzzle that was 2 sided. The same scene was printed on both sides of the puzzle but with a 90-degree turn. So you could not tell as you held a piece if it was upside down or right side up. Because of the way the puzzle was cut there were always two pieces that were nearly identical but fit in two different places of the puzzle. One piece needed to be placed diagonally opposite from the other. Needless to say, this was a very time consuming process until I created a system to sort out the pieces more carefully. I also discovered that I could place a piece in what appeared to be the correct location, but if it were actually placed upside down it would not fit exactly how it should. It was just a very little bit off; sometimes I would not even know it did not fit until I tried another piece adjacent to it that also did not fit. So what is the point of this lengthy story? I’ve probably told you more than you ever wanted to know about jigsaw puzzles! What I recognized in these puzzle pieces is that if you find yourself in the wrong place your entire picture can be incomplete. It seems to me that as Christians that should be the description of us. Not fitting exactly should provide a lesson about how we have been called to live our lives every day. The colors are right, the scene has the correct details and features, but something just does not fit. We have been called to be world changers not world conformers. That does not mean we will look differently than everyone else but there must still be something that just does not fit. We are called to be different, called to be transformers of culture. That does not mean we shy away from culture but we must be careful to not have it fit us like a glove. If the fit does not feel right or even if it fits too well we maybe have to determine if we really belong in another part of the puzzle or if we are here in order to make other pieces fit better. I must be careful not to try stretch this analogy too far but I hope you get the simple point - not fitting is not a bad thing. In many situations we as followers of Christ should not fit. That does not mean we do not have a role to play in the bigger picture but maybe it is not in that certain spot or time or situation. A wise teaching that I have not heard for a while is that we must be “in the world but not of the world.” So how do you fit? Too well? Take a look around you. Are you really where you belong or should you be somewhere else? Do you not fit well at all? Take a look at yourself. Is your discomfort by choice or is it because of an awareness that you have sacrificed some values to be where you are? Those are not easy questions but they are important questions that have to be asked over and over.