My Puzzle

This week I had a writing assignment for my small group Bible study at my church. The assignment was to write my testimony out basically in a nutshell. This was a very challenging assignment for me because I feel like my spiritual journey has been such a long and meandering path with lots of ups and downs. It was suppose to be 100 words or less but typical of my propensity to toss silly rules aside, I did not follow the directions exactly. It took me a long time to get the most important aspects of it boiled down into a couple of paragraphs. So here it is if anyone is curious.

Jesus has been a part of my life since I was a little girl. That has been a huge blessing to me but it does not mean that I have had a smooth or easy life. My biggest obstacle to overcome in my spiritual journey has been learning to really trust in God and his plan for my life in all circumstances, even when life gets really hard. I am a person who likes to be in control and solve my own problems but life has often thrown me big problems that only God could work out. Turning these big things over to God has been a real struggle for me but time and time again I have seen him work things out in ways I never could have orchestrated or imagined.

Sometimes I compare my life to a giant puzzle half finished. Some of the puzzle pieces were nice looking to begin with and fit in easily while other pieces were dirty or ripped or jagged and didn’t seem to fit at all. Over the years, I have seen Jesus’ light shine on some of my dirty and ripped pieces and make them like new to fit perfectly into the beautiful picture that was starting to form. The beautiful picture is God’s purpose for my life. I really believe that without Jesus in my life, those dirty and ripped pieces would stay the way they were or they might even be scattered and lost and my puzzle would never be complete. I would never know God’s purpose for my life. Seeing how God has used the hard things in my life over the years for good has brought me closer to him, strengthened my trust in Him, and made me want to share with others what I have learned so they can experience the same thing. No one should have to walk through the really hard stuff of life alone!