Post #30 -- The Puzzle Syndrome

At the time of this writing, my wife and I are about to leave warm, sunny Florida for less-than-warm-and-sunny Pennsylvania.  It has been a great two and one-half months in Florida relaxing, reading, reflecting, talking, praying, walking the beach (Marilyn), and joy-riding the scooter (Don).  Sitting by the pool wasn’t too bad either!  To top all this off, we had the fun of putting together nine puzzles (most had 1000 pieces) with the help of lots of visiting family and friends!  We (or at least some of the puzzle team) worked endless hours laboring deeply over those puzzle pieces.

As I write, I’m watching the last of these puzzles being torn apart and being put back into the box.

The Futility of it All

That’s when it hit me …

We had lots of fun enjoying the challenge of putting each puzzle together — watching the picture piece by piece slowing come into focus.  We spent countless hours laboring through the day and part of some nights seeking the right spot for the individual puzzle pieces, being frustrated when they didn’t quite fit or when we were convinced there simply weren’t enough pieces.  We even tore the house apart one day looking for a missing puzzle piece.  Then after all this, we took a quick snapshot of each completed puzzle, tore it apart, and put it back into the box.  Don’t misunderstand me.  As I said, putting that hobby puzzle together was a challenge and lots of fun.  BUT I could not escape the awareness that what took endless hours and hard work coming together, took less than 60 seconds to come apart!  Something simply did not seem right. Actually I found it a bit depressing!

The Puzzle Syndrome

But my spirits pick up …  

What a metaphor this is for putting together life’s puzzle!

I call this the puzzle syndrome — the possibility of easily investing endless days working hard at putting the physical life puzzle together, many times with pieces that don’t quite “fit”, only to eventually have that life puzzle come apart and the pieces simply put back into the “box”. That’s it for life as we knew it!  And depending how we lived, all we’ve worked for is gone!  

The life puzzle is so very important.  It can be good and God-honoring lived with an eternal perspective or it can be all about me, my fun, and my success.  Though temporary, it can be fun for a while or it can be something much better that lasts for an eternity.

For some people, the puzzle pieces seem to consist of amassing a fortune, becoming CEO or company President, or owning their own small business or simply being committed to pursuing many other self-interests.  For many, it involves going to work to earn a paycheck to bring home to pay the bills so that they can go back to work again the next day to earn the paycheck to bring home to pay bills, and on and on.  There’s got to be more to life than that!  This is certainly not thriving!  This seems to be so very fruitless — especially when that person takes nothing with him or her.  One never sees a hearse towing a U-haul!

For others, the puzzle pieces consist of seeking to live out what Jesus called the Great Commandment in Matt 22: 37-40 — “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” This individual lives life to the fullest (John 10:10) with the assurance of an eternal life, after life here on earth has ended.

God speaks to us all throughout Scripture of what He desires the puzzle of our lives to look like.  Just to highlight a few …

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  (Matt 6:33)

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with with what you have.”  (Hebrews 13:5)  

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”  (Colossians 3:23)

“And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.’”  (Mark 16:15)

“And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)

The challenge to each of us is: what kind of puzzle am I putting together?  Is my priority to live for the Lord, or for myself? What kind of legacy will I leave?

I hasten to add that this puzzle metaphor does break down a bit — in at least two areas.  First, after the hobby puzzle is completed, there’s no hope for an afterlife.  However, for the life puzzle that has been completed there can be all kinds of hope. 

Second, depending on one’s life decisions, supernatural power is available to assemble those life pieces.  I’ll talk about each in-turn.

First, when the hobby puzzle is put back into the box, that’s it for the puzzle.  There is no real follow-on life for that puzzle.  The most that puzzle could hope for is that someone will admire the photograph now and then or some lucky person gets to put the puzzle together again.  Other than that, life for that hobby puzzle is over!  In the real world, though, when life’s puzzle has been completed, disassembled, torn apart and put back into the “box”, there can be great hope for something even better and more lasting.  The person with God at the center of that puzzle, i.e., the one who has surrendered his or her life to the Lord and is seeking to live for Him, is assured of the hope to live on into eternity in fellowship with Jesus and other friends who have gone on before him or her.  Unfortunately, on the other hand, Scripture says that the individual who during life has chosen to live without God at the center of that puzzle will also live on in a place without God.  How disastrous!

Second, the follower of Jesus putting together life’s puzzle has a big advantage over the person putting together the hobby puzzle — The Holy Spirit.  This is not to say that the individual putting the hobby puzzle together is not indwelled by the Holy Sprit, but we are clearly assured that the Holy Spirit is given as a great comfort and guidance to the person seeking to follow the Lord in life (John 14:16-18; John 14:25-26).

What kind of puzzle are are you and I putting together?

How grateful we can be that having confessed our sins to the Lord, having acknowledged that Jesus has died for them, having invited Him into our lives and having committed to live for Him, we can be assured that when the process of putting that life puzzle together is completed, we can have great confidence and excitement that real life is only just beginning!  

And that is thriving!