Your Puzzle Piece

"And there are different ways that God works through people but the same God. God works in all of us in everything we do. Something from the Spirit can be seen in each person, for the common good. The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak with wisdom, and the same Spirit gives another the ability to speak with knowledge. The same Spirit gives faith to one person. And, to another, that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. The Spirit gives to another person the power to do miracles, to another the ability to prophesy. And he gives to another the ability to know the difference between good and evil spirits. The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak in different kinds of languages and to another the ability to interpret those languages. One Spirit, the same Spirit, does all these things, and the Spirit decides what to give each person."---I Corinthians 12:4-11 (NCV)




"The easiest thing in the world is to be what you are...the hardest thing to be is what other people want you to be."---Leo Buscaglia




Here's a start of the week teaser (Due to the length, Mr. Horne, you should be really thankful for this):




I am currently working on the devotional message for the start of this week, but all weekend long, I felt like the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 2:13) has been on me to get this out...right now...for someone.




It's amazing what happens when you start taking your focus off of man and putting it on God. I know for me, one of the main things it has done is help me to really see my value (Psalm 139:14), along with the fact that God really does have, as my mother puts it on every single answering machine message I have heard since I was a child, "a plan that's custom made for my life". Jeremiah 29:11 doesn't tell us that man, or even we know the plans of good (and not evil) that God has in mind for us. It says that only God does and if we lack wisdom concerning our role in those plans (usually from day to day), we should ask him (James 1:5).




Aside from the "pimple popping" revelation that I shared last week, another little cliché' that I have been using as of late is "I'm not gonna force my puzzle piece". Oh, it's soooooo liberating! (Galatians 5:13) I'll explain.




Most of us are familiar with Romans 8:28 (AMP):




"We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose."




Sometimes when I read this, I focus on the word "plan". Other times it's "those who love God" or "those who are called according to his purpose". This past week, however, it has been "all things work together". Hmm, kind of like a puzzle.




When you are putting a puzzle together, initially, all you have are a box of pieces that are individually precut. I don't know about you, but a control freak (in recovery) like me used to get really frustrated with puzzles because oftentimes I would get impatient and try and make a piece fit where it wasn't designed to. No matter what I did, the truth (John 8:32) is that it wasn't going to fit, but if I ignored that fact and tried too hard to make it work, I ended up damaging the piece---which ended up affecting the bigger picture.




As we start off this new week, this is what I want you to keep in mind: You are an already precut, handmade, custom-designed, made-to-fit puzzle piece. As the lead scripture states that we are all created with different and individual spiritual gifts for the sake of a greater spiritual purpose, we are also created with different and individual looks, personalities, talents, styles, perspectives, insights, passions and callings (Romans 11:29). If we submit these things to our creator, it is for the same reason.




You don't---well, some of you who have stuck it out with me for the past 15 years or so might---know how many years I spent trying to "fit my piece" into a certain clique, church, crowd, craft, crush, couture, complexion...the "C's" go on and on. "C" is average and I ain't average, but that's another testimony entirely! Anyway, at least from where I sat, the "big picture" was having friends, having money, and getting the husband with the one house, two kids and three cars---you know, fitting in. But the picture I tried to put myself in, often was very uncomfortable for me. I was breaking my neck to make certain relationships work. I was going to churches where I felt like I had to explain/defend myself. I was working at jobs where I was miserable. I WAS PUTTING MY PUZZLE PIECE WHERE IT DIDN'T FIT---and the reality is, where it wasn't going to fit. Of course, that hurts. The Bible said that it would:




"Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?"---Romans 6:16 (AMP)




The Bible also says that we were bought with a price and so we are not to be slaves among men (I Corinthians 7:23). Why? Because men are made up of not just spirit, but flesh and flesh brings forth death (Romans 8:13). Literally, when you are working to please the flesh, you are working yourself to death!




That said, another scripture holds multiple meanings for me is John 14:6 (NKJV):




"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"




This past week, the word that especially stayed with me in this verse was "way". Christ makes my way. When I finally started (it's an ever-evolving process) surrendering my will to that fact, I started discovering the abundant life (John 10:10) that Christ had in mind for me since before I was born. (Jeremiah 1:5) God already knew who how I would look, my personality, my likes/dislikes, my passions and my purpose. He also knew who would appreciate/respect/accept me JUST AS I AM. He precut me to fit in a certain puzzle...a certain section of his overall picture. I think I shared last week that a huge lesson for me was realizing that a big part of this journey is not just surrounding myself with people that love me, but want me as well. Walking together (Amos 3:3) means that you must be in agreement. Your puzzle pieces must fit together. I have come to accept that while relationships take work, they should not be dramatic, exhausting, confusing. (I Corinthians 14:33) When they are, I may be trying to fit where I was never created to.




What I think a lot of us miss is that if that is the case, that's OK. It actually may be by God's design because while you are trying to put yourself where you don't belong, you may be causing damaging to yourself, someone else or the overall greater picture that God has in mind. In other words, just because you don't "fit together", whether in this season or period, that doesn't make either person "bad" or "wrong"...just not right for each other. When it comes to accepting this fact, I love what Myles Monroe says about it: God wants us to do what's right, not just what's good. Christ could have come here and lived out his life as a humble shepherd. That would have been good. He was called to die for our sins. In following through with that, for him, that's what was right. That's what his "precut puzzle piece" was designed to do when it comes to the "picture perfect plan" of redemption.




Romans 12:18 tells us that as much as possible, as much as it depends on us, we should live peaceably with all men. To be "peaceful" is to be "free from war, strife, commotion, violence, or disorder", "not argumentative, quarrelsome, or hostile", "tranquil". Family, sometimes youare actually causing the drama by trying to be where you just don't belong. Sometimes being "peaceful" is accepting that where you want to be may not be where you are called to be, where you need to be, where you were designed to be. Sometimes a state of "peace" is accepting that as being OK and trusting that God will work it all out for the best (Hebrews 11:1& 6); that he sees what we do not; that rejection can actually be a form of protection.




So this week, make some time to ask God to reveal to you who you are and what your purpose is. Then ask him to line you up with the persons, places, things and ideas that will only enhance your identity and your calling. Then relax(Jude 1:2---Message)and let the chips---I mean, pieces fall where they may.




You don't have to explain, defend, or change your puzzle piece to make yourself fit. You have nothing to do with how you were precut. You came in this "world box" that way...for the sake of God's, not yours or anyone else's, bigger picture.




©Shellie R. Warren/2008