Have you noticed how some things in your life come effortlessly, and other things, despite all your efforts, don’t seem to come at all? There are times when life just falls in place like the last few pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. And at other times it seems that the puzzle is missing pieces, or has the wrong pieces. You may even find yourself trying to force pieces into spaces they don’t belong.
I know a man who wanted to be something he was not meant to be. He had a vision of the jigsaw puzzle he wanted to create, but those weren’t the puzzle pieces God had given him. He tried to arrange them into the picture he wanted, but they wouldn’t fit. In his life he encountered one frustration after another. And even when his efforts appeared successful, his life would fall apart in some other area. For instance, he got the job he wanted, but he lost his wife. He got the car and house he wanted but developed a drinking problem to go with them.
Part of the reason life was such a struggle for him was because it wouldn’t make the picture he wanted it to make. He wanted to believe that you can choose your own puzzle. But the puzzle that was his own life showed him that you can’t. When he was finally able to accept this, the pieces of his life came together in a new way.