“When your inner and outer worlds are congruent, the pieces all seem to fit…everything clicks. If you know at the core of your being that you are living a life that is aligned with your purpose, filled with what you love, and supporting your growth, you are living an authentic life.”
~ Suzanne Willis Zogolio “Create a Life that Tickles Your Soul”
The dreams God puts in your heart and that you can “see” by faith, is like the picture on a puzzle box.
It’s done.
It’s pretty.
It’s perfect.
But then you open up the box and the picture is in 1000 pieces!
It’s a mess!
But every single one of those pieces is a part of that beautiful picture you want to create.
YOU are in those pieces!
How do you put that picture together?
You know the answer….
One piece at a time.
Is there any right way to do a puzzle?
Well, I would say that you get all the pieces out, sort them into two piles—borders and the rest—all the while flipping them right side up. Then you put the border together.
But that’s me.
I know there are people who might immediately begin on the part of the picture that attracts them the most—the pretty red barn in the center, perhaps.
And you know what?
It really doesn’t matter HOW you put it together. If your goal is to put all the pieces in place, the only thing that matters is that you start doing just that—putting them together.
One-by-one.
And you can’t do it any faster than that either.
It’s one piece at a time.
Have you ever seen any double-handed puzzle-putting-together-people with a piece in each hand who placed them simultaneously?
Nah.
Me either.
You have to focus your full attention on each piece you place.
To add to the challenge and excitement of doing a puzzle, you might be looking for a specific piece and end up finding a different piece altogether that fits in another place.
And you might go back and continue to look and look and look for that one piece but end up having to work on another area for awhile.
And then, suddenly, you see that piece you had been looking for and it goes right in.
Well, I’m sure you recognize that this is an analogy for how it works with the dreams and ideas God gives, and the discovery of how he wired us—-who He created us to be:
We see the final picture in our mind’s eye. God gives that to us. He shows us the end–where we are headed.
And then…you suddenly have a pile of pieces sitting in front of you that need to be put together.
A pile of disconnected ideas.
At least that’s how I have felt.
I will have what seems like a thousand ideas, and in my mind it’s a big, jumbled mess that makes no sense at all.
Pick up one piece (idea) and look at it and it doesn’t seem to fit anywhere, and all by itself it doesn’t even look like anything specific.
An eye here.
A petal of a flower there.
BUT THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET THE WHOLE PICTURE IN ORDER IS TO START TAKING EACH PIECE AND PLACING IT SOMEWHERE!!
Sometimes we may even find out that we have jammed a piece in the wrong place.
Is that an error that will never be corrected?
Of course not!
We will discover it as we continue our process of placing pieces in their proper place.
And, also, as each piece goes into place, it makes putting the other pieces in THEIR place much easier.
So just like with the puzzle, as you start putting your ideas in place, the picture begins to take shape and you can actually start seeing it with your natural eye. Not just in your mind’s eye (or on the puzzle box cover.)
You will begin to see clearly what you look like to God, what you will be doing with the gifts and talents and passions He put in you, what the dream and vision is…and you will catch flashes and glimpse of how and where you will bloom!
It all comes into sharper focus and greater clarity.
We were created for the journey, not just for the destination. We were created for the adventure of doing the work God called us to do. We are pilgrims who are to travel light along life’s journey as we seek His will and presence. ~ Cheri Fuller, “The One Year Praying the Promises of God”
So all this is to say is that you have to start with that first piece.
By faith.
You have to organize your pieces in whatever way works for you (we all work differently) and then you start focusing on whatever part you want to focus on first.
You can’t get overwhelmed by all the pieces and just give up and declare, “This is too hard! And it doesn’t look like anything anyway! It’s just a big mess!”
No.
If God gave you the end vision, the picture of how it can (and will) look, then all those pieces will fit together.
And the picture will be beautiful.
For real.
In your own real life.
And even though some of the pieces will be harder to find and fit, it makes “the finding” all that more exciting and fulfilling.
The challenge of finding and putting the pieces in place is actually the fun part of the whole project.
The PROCESS is fun! (And is actually very important—-as important as the final product/goal!
It’s what GETS us to where we are going…
And once you get that puzzle together you know what will happen?
You’ll want to do another one!
So don’t give up when you look at all those seemingly unrelated and disconnected pieces.
Believe that they make up a beautiful picture and start putting them together.
One by one.
LINK: Accept and Embrace How God Made You