By Megan Blansit
Founder of The Beautiful Movement - a youth ministry for high school girls. For more information, visit The Beautiful Movement’s Facebook page, where I post the time, place, and activity for each month
Hello friends! I hope you have had a great week thus far! I want to go down memory lane for a second. As a young girl, one of my hobbies was to put together puzzles. Anyone else share that as a past time? At a very young age I was fascinated with putting the United States map together but as I got older the more complicated ones began to intrigue me. Lets just say I wasn’t as fast at the 500 piece puzzles as I was at putting the states together though!
The 500 piece puzzles were very time consuming and at times frustrating. If you’ve ever worked on a 500 piece puzzle or even a 1000 piece puzzle, I am sure you have felt my pain at some point. Isn’t it odd that we naturally focus on the pieces that are missing rather than the picture we have already started to create? It’s been very rare that I stop and think midway how pretty the puzzle is. My mind is continually looking for the next piece and sometimes even trying to force the wrong piece in a certain spot.
Switching gears- how often do we as Christians focus only on the things that we are missing (or think that we are missing) rather than focusing on how beautiful our life already is, without that missing “piece?” I’ve definitely been guilty of having the wrong focus. As humans, we are wired to “want want want” but it is very important to remind ourselves to be thankful for the “pieces” Christ has already given us. Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Friends, that doesn’t say “some needs” it says “all your needs.” That’s something to shout about!
I wonder how many of us could be like David and say what he says in Psalms 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” That’s a bold statement, friend! I want to be like David; I want to be content with what Christ has given me in this moment and not be envious of what other people have that I don’t.
I’ve also learned it’s both painful and frustrating to keep forcing the wrong things or “pieces” in my life. I’m about to get transparent. We’re friend’s right, I can do that? There was a time I was dating a guy but it wasn’t going as smoothly as I had anticipated. This caused frustration, as well as confusion on my end. One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “He is the wrong piece.” It is in moments like this that we surrender everything back over to Him and remember He has an even better plan for us that we can imagine. He wants the absolute best for his children; I love having that kind of Father.
Christ even knows what we need before we even ask! It’s truly incredible how big our God is and I am afraid we as Christians limit his capability. We serve the same God who made the sun stand still for a whole day (Joshua 10:13), we serve the same God who literally parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could escape from the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:21.) We serve the same God who was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Could you imagine being thrown into a fire and not have your hair singed or even smell like fire? ( Daniel 3.) … I say all this to say, Christ is all knowing and we may not understand why we are in a certain situation or how the Lord could even manage to make something beautiful out of your “puzzle” but He can and will! But lets be real, who would want to serve a God if they understood all of his ways? That would place you and him on the same level, and I don’t know about you, but I want someone smarter than myself over my life!
I am confident that Christ will supply every piece to the puzzle that you need, friend! And if He says you’re forcing the wrong piece, don’t be discouraged. God will never take away a good “piece” and replace it with a bad one. He replaces what we think is good with something even better! It may not be right when you think you “need” it, but challenge yourself to be like David. Realize that as long as you have Christ, you lack nothing. The Lord is in the process of setting up your “picture” perfectly. All we have to do is be patient. Lastly, I want to to assure you that your pieces aren’t forgotten. Have a blessed weekend!
