What's missing?

By virtually any standard, I am a geek. I am OK with that. I have embraced my geekiness. I think everybody is a geek about something. Whether it's your unnatural fascination with Bob Stoops or the fact that all your cups have to be stacked a certain way in the cupboard, we are geeky people.

One of the things that I am geeky about is puzzles. I would not consider myself proficient with puzzles, but I do enjoy the challenge. I have been digging out some old puzzles, & had a couple that were missing the picture. This might not seem like much to you, but if you have ever tried to put together a puzzle without knowing what it's supposed to look like, you know how tough this can be.

I started the puzzle around 8pm. I thought that I would work on it & leave it for later. I had gotten quite a bit done when I realized it was almost midnight. I decided to continue to pursue this noble challenge a lit longer. I was almost done & I thought that if I left it until tomorrow, it would surely have been destroyed by some unnamed 4 year old.

As it neared completion, I realized something. I was missing a piece. Again, this might not seem like much to you. But after maniacally working on this puzzle for 6 hours, I was about to be denied the satisfaction of completing it.

When I was thinking about the puzzle after I had gone to bed, (pathetic, I know) I couldn't help but think about the Jewish word Shalom. Shalom is a word that we have translated as peace, but it actually has a much deeper meaning. It means "complete" or "whole". When you think about that, it amazes me because Jesus didn't come to just to make me feel better. He came to make me whole. He is not just the Prince of Peace, but the Prince of Completion. He came so that there would be nothing lacking from my life.

When I looked at this puzzle it reminded me of something. Sometimes we feel that we are putting the scattered pieces of our lives together without a picture for reference. This is more than difficult, it can be discouraging & frustrating. We feel like it's our responsibility to make the pieces fit. The good news is, God sees the big picture & knows where everything goes. It's not our responsibility to put things together, it's our responsibility to follow God's direction.

God wants you to experience his wholeness, but that doesn't mean that everything will be perfect. It means that we might not have all the pieces & we're OK with that. It means that we will trust God to put things together instead of trying to do it ourselves. It means that sometimes it will seem like there's a missing piece even though God just hasn't put it in place yet.

What's missing from your life? Are you trying to do things yourself? Trust God to give you Shalom.

By the way, about 15 minutes after I finished the puzzle I found the missing piece under the table. That may be another blog someday.