PUZZLE PIECES

About a week ago a friend and I decided we would put together a jigsaw puzzle. We worked on it for hours. We got the border put together and some of the pieces that fit on the inside of the border. We also have some of the pieces put together that don't fit anywhere yet. There just sitting on the table waiting to be connected to the rest of the puzzle. While I was working on the puzzle I had the thought that the puzzle was really a lot like life. There are a lot of different pieces to our lives and we are always trying to fit it all together. Since then I have had the thought that it's a whole lot easier with help. Just like the puzzle.

It seems in life we are in a constant battle. Always struggling to fit the pieces of our lives together. Whether it has to do with other people or just yourself or sometimes with God. After a lifetime of struggling with the pieces of my life I finally decided to see if God could help me put all the pieces together. I'm happy to tell you that once I started asking He is.

When we opened the puzzle box what was inside was just a mess of funny shaped colored cardboard. The first thing we had to do was dump them all out and turn them right side up. When you come to God that's kind of what He does. He takes you and just kind of starts getting all the stuff on the inside of you dumped out. When your doing a puzzle you can't work on every section at once. You won't get very far if you do. You have to pick one section, try to find all the colored pieces that may go there, and start putting them together. With us that's what God does. He takes one thing that isn't right and starts working with us on it. Just one section. It's pretty much all jumbled just like the pieces. But, then He starts working with you. He starts getting the pieces all right side up. Once He starts you have to do your part too. He is your friend, helping you put the pieces of your life together. God has to work with you longer on some things than other things. No matter where you've been, or what you've done in life, until you come to God your pieces are really not going to fit together like they should.

I don't like talking about my past very much. I'm only doing it because God wants me to. I believe that there are people that will read this that need to hear what I have to say. Where I once was and where God has brought me to now. Maybe they've been there or are there now. I don't know. I also want you to know that in no way am I trying to make satan look good. For whatever the reason here's a little more of my story.

I always knew my life was a mess. The summer before junior high I started smoking. Not long after I started 7th grade I was taking pills on a regular basis. I told you in an earlier post I was a deacons kid. So was my best friend. And, as it happens, her boyfriend was the preachers son where she went to church. I say that just so you kind of know where I'm coming from, not to give
preachers and deacons a bad name. In a later post you'll understand why I'm telling you this. Her boyfriend was in high school and had become a drug dealer. He got us anything we wanted. Free of charge. We thought we were in "Heaven", so to speak. In the town I grew up in there weren't any gangs and schools didn't have guards. But just like every other place satan was there. We were doing everything he wanted us to do and thought we were having the time of our lives. We had so much "fun" we continued on right through high school. I can truthfully tell you that had it not been for friends that prayed for us, and I'm sure parents that prayed for us, I wouldn't be writing this now. Sometimes I would take a handful of pills. I didn't care what they were. Sometimes amphetamines and sometimes barbiturates. It didn't really matter. I just really didn't want to be me. I thought by doing drugs I would be a different person. One I could like and one that other people would like. To a degree it worked. I did change. I became more withdrawn. I still didn't like me and I didn't have any more friends than when I started. The kind of friends you make when you do drugs aren't ones that you want to have a life long relationship with. They pretty much just want what you have. For the most part I did everything I set out to do when I started junior high. Drugs and smoking. The only thing I didn't do was start drinking. That had to wait for high school.

If your reading this, and thinking about starting to do some of these things, stop and talk to someone first. I can tell you from experience it doesn't solve any of your problems. It actually makes them worse. I'm not going to tell you that they don't make you feel good because they do. And yes, it is fun. If you've attended church at all in your lifetime you probably have heard the pastor say that "sin is fun for a season". Eventually though you pay for it. Even after becoming a Christian you sometimes still have problems because of how you lived. I believe that God will heal you of a lot of things but still others He may not. It's all just a price you pay for the sin.

Getting back to the puzzle...I had and still do have a lot of pieces that needed to be turned right side up and put together. God has helped me with a lot of them already. There are still many more places that need to be worked on. With God's help someday the picture will be complete. I believe that will be when I reach Heaven. He can do that for you to if you let Him. Whatever the reasons your pieces are torn apart and in a mess, He wants to help you with them. It's not easy to do but with God all things are possible. Even putting the mess that we call our lives back together. Let Him help you do it. Give Him control. You won't regret it.

We used to sing a song in church when I was a kid that said this:

Only believe, Only believe, All things are possible only Believe.

That's all you have to do. Just believe and trust in God. He will help you!