Lessons from the field

Someone mailed me a puzzle in June. I haven't put together a large puzzle in 20 years probably. Living alone in Africa does strange things to a person. So I started working on this 500 piece puzzle a little at a time over the last three weeks or so. I don't have much time here so it was done in place of reading or watching a movie at night. I actually learned so much while I was doing this puzzle. I kept getting distracted trying to make one single piece fit somewhere. I had to keep reminding myself to look at the bigger picture. Look at the completion as a whole and this one piece makes more sense but its also less important. I began to move in segments, working on colored sections only. I know this seems all random but it really spoke a lot to my life.

I am constantly trying to figure out how things work and why? Where does this fit in with everything else I know. But life doesn't fit together in a way that every piece connects to every other piece. Past, present and future are separated by vast plains of time and space.

My job here in Senegal is defined but not defined. I have the freedom because of my calling as a missionary to preach to the Gospel to anyone and everyone. This sometimes is overwhelming if I focus on each person and wonder how they can be reached. But if I look at the bigger picture, the work of the church as a whole, we do it together. Its not my burden alone.

This idea connects to so many other things in my life. I am always trying to make everything fit together in my pea sized brain. But its about the bigger picture. What's the main point of what we are doing? When we can see that, the picture comes into focus. Each part of our life or work is done a little at a time. Color by color, shape by shape and it forms this grand scheme. That isn't really ours but God's.

I was pondering all these things the other night while working on my puzzle and God spoke to me this: Psalm 16:1-2 Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Then later in verse 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.