{"id":1399,"date":"2012-06-20T13:31:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T17:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2012-06-19T12:01:22","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T16:01:22","slug":"the-puzzle-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html","title":{"rendered":"The Puzzle of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life is a puzzle and sometimes we have difficulty getting the pieces to fit properly.\u00a0 Little Erin was worn out just trying to put Strawberry Shortcake together.\u00a0\u00a0 She really was just going to rest her head for a minute and ended up sleeping the whole night.\u00a0 Her problem was that she became overwhelmed by the task at hand.\u00a0 She was only going to rest a bit, but ended up just stopping.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our lives can be very much like a puzzle and we too can get overwhelmed trying to get the pieces to fit.\u00a0 God is the maker of our life’s puzzle and He must fit the pieces.\u00a0 We often try to fit in a place meant for someone else.\u00a0 We strive for places of ministry that we are not suited for.\u00a0 We try to fit people in our lives who God never intended to be there.<\/p>\n

The body of Christ is made of many members. (I Cor.12:12-26)\u00a0 We each have our place and our own special value.\u00a0 The foot cannot say to the hand, “I am more important than you.”\u00a0 Nor can the ears say to the eyes, “I have no part of you”.\u00a0 We all have our places, just like the pieces of a puzzle.<\/p>\n

I Cor. 12:27 tells us that we each have been given certain gifts and ministries in the church.\u00a0 Those are our puzzle pieces.\u00a0 We cannot make ourselves fit into another’s space.\u00a0 We cannot push our way in, we cannot talk our way in, and we cannot manipulate our way in.\u00a0 God alone designed the plan and the puzzle that is our life.\u00a0 When we try to fit where we don’t belong, the whole picture changes, puzzle pieces are bent or broken, and we throw away the parts we don’t understand.<\/p>\n

Then we become tired and frustrated with trying to figure it all out.\u00a0 Erin fell asleep on the job.\u00a0 We too fall asleep on the job.\u00a0 When we become overwhelmed, often times we just give up and wait for a better day.\u00a0 If we could trust God to direct us with the puzzle pieces and not try to do it all by ourselves, we could save us bot a lot of stress and frustration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is a puzzle and sometimes we have difficulty getting the pieces to fit properly.\u00a0 Little Erin was worn out just trying to put Strawberry Shortcake together.\u00a0\u00a0 She really was just going to rest her head for a minute and ended up sleeping the whole night.\u00a0 Her problem was that she became overwhelmed by the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,3,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-encouragement","category-just-for-fun"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Puzzle of Life - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Puzzle of Life - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Life is a puzzle and sometimes we have difficulty getting the pieces to fit properly.\u00a0 Little Erin was worn out just trying to put Strawberry Shortcake together.\u00a0\u00a0 She really was just going to rest her head for a minute and ended up sleeping the whole night.\u00a0 Her problem was that she became overwhelmed by the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-20T17:31:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-19T16:01:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_0894.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Puzzle of Life - Small Town America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Puzzle of Life - Small Town America","og_description":"Life is a puzzle and sometimes we have difficulty getting the pieces to fit properly.\u00a0 Little Erin was worn out just trying to put Strawberry Shortcake together.\u00a0\u00a0 She really was just going to rest her head for a minute and ended up sleeping the whole night.\u00a0 Her problem was that she became overwhelmed by the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html","og_site_name":"Small Town America","article_published_time":"2012-06-20T17:31:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-06-19T16:01:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_0894.jpg"}],"author":"dhanny","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/the-puzzle-of-life.html","name":"The Puzzle of Life - 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