Solve the Puzzle

                                    “. . . He has also set eternity in the hearts of men  . . .”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

   “What’s da matter with dis ting?” I heard the frustrated little voice ask. I turned around to see what “dis ting” was and bent down, face to face, with one of the 4 year old boys in my Sunday school class. He could not get a piece of his puzzle to fit where he thought it should go. He had repeatedly twisted the piece at every angle, but while it was similar in shape, it was not the right one. 

    He finally took his fist and began pounding on the puzzle piece, as if he could somehow beat it into the hole. And yet, it still did not match up. I knelt beside him and quietly shared, “The puzzle piece won’t fit in that space because it isn’t the same shape. We need to look around and find one that is the very same and see if it will fit.” But he shook his head. “Nope. I think I just need to keep hittin’ it with my fist ‘til it goes in,” he responded.

   I looked through the remaining pieces on the table and found the correct one. “Only one puzzle piece is exactly like that space. Why don’t we try this one and see if it will work?” I asked him. Grudgingly, he took it from me, but instantly smiled as it fit perfectly in the puzzle. “Thanks,” he told me, “but that other one would have fitted if I hit it a few more times with my fist.”

   Sound familiar? That’s us, alright, when it comes to life. There is an empty space inside all of us, and nothing will fill it except Jesus. Oh, we can try to fill it with other things, and we do. We try money or a career, or relationships. We may even try to put family in that spot and push and shove to make it fit.

    That might result in the appearance of “fitting” and result in temporary happiness, but it will never be the exact fit that brings us joy and peace for eternity. Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, understood. He wrote  that God “has also set eternity in the hearts of men.”

   Solomon had it all: wisdom beyond compare, wealth with no equal, every pleasure that money could buy. And yet he knew that his heart was not complete – that the pieces of his life did not fit together – without God.

   God has placed an empty spot for a puzzle piece in our hearts. What puzzle piece will you choose to fit in that space? I choose Jesus.

   Father, thank you for giving me Jesus to fill the longing in my heart for a place in eternity with you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

• Have you ever felt a longing in your heart for more than just what the world offers?

• What worldly solutions have you tried to satisfy that longing? Did anything work?

Apply

• Journal those things in your life that are puzzle pieces you have used to try to fill the empty places in your heart.

• Read Ecclesiastes 3:11 aloud, replacing the word “eternity” with each of those things. Compare them with the gift of eternal life with Jesus.

Power

• Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV) “. . . He has also set eternity in the hearts of men . . .”

• Psalm 63:1 (NIV) “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you,   my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

• Psalm 42:1 (NIV) “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”

My Meeting on Lane Two

        “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

   My afternoon was perfectly planned. List written down? Check. Each errand marked off as it was completed? Check. One more item and then home? Check. And what was next? Hurry home,  make more lists, and repeat the same routine the next day. Oh, but God had a different plan.

   I grabbed my one item at the grocery store – my last stop – and impatiently looked over the checkout lines until I saw the shortest one and made my way toward Lane 2 as quickly as I could. That’s when I saw him.

   He was a former student of mine who was always respectful and polite, but also one who I knew struggled daily on the edge between good and not-so-good choices. He had been on my mind several times, but I had not seen him for months. The Lord quietly nudged me.

   Suddenly, my plan to finish my list and rush to get home ceased to matter. I gave him a hug when he looked my way and asked how he was doing. He muttered a noncommittal answer but waited until I got checked out to walk outside with me.

   As we walked, he told me the latest in his life. My heart wanted to cry as he shared the trouble he had gotten into and what he was doing now. After a few minutes, we said our goodbyes, but not before I told him that I loved him and was praying for him. He shrugged at the prayer comment but smiled and said, “Love you, too.”

    How wise are the words in Proverbs 19:21. We plan every single minute of our lives, from the second we get up until we go to bed, and even then, we lie there, planning our list for the next day.  It’s as if we are afraid to stop, take a deep breath, and simply allow the Lord to direct our tomorrow.

   I could have waved, said “hi,” and hurried on so my plan would not have been altered. But I believe that God is sovereign over our lives and that His plan that day was designed to include a meeting with my student on Lane 2. My heart cries when I think of all the opportunities the Lord has placed in my path and my “not your plan but mine” attitude that has kept me from simply encouraging one of His children. 

   May we never get so busy being busy with our plans that we ignore God’s plan for us to show His love to those who are hurting and searching. Even in a grocery store on Lane 2.

   Father, may your plan be my plan every day. I do not want to miss your direction and will for my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

• Have you seen someone and felt that you needed to talk to them, but didn’t take the time because you had your plan to complete?

• If you didn’t talk with them, why not? Did you have a plan of your own that you thought you needed to complete?

Apply

• Make a list of everything that you feel you need to accomplish for one day.

• Beside each of those items, write down the worst thing that can happen if you choose to share Jesus instead of completing those things on your list.

Power

• Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

• I Timothy 2:1 (NIV) “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone . . .”

• Proverbs 16:33 (NIV) “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

There's No Denying the Taped Conversation

                           “Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.”

Proverbs 21:19 (NIV)

   That was it! I was done! Once again, even after repeated reminders, my husband had walked into the bathroom and dropped his socks b-e-s-i-d-e the clothes hamper. Not IN the hamper, but beside it! I could feel my jaw tighten as I scrolled through my mental list of zingers to throw his way. “Are you blind?” “How hard is it to open the hamper and drop in the socks? Too much effort?” “Do I look like your mother? Your maid? Your servant?”

    Then I did what I believed all wives were required to do: I stored that incident in my mind along with all the other times that socks were dropped on the floor, anniversaries and birthdays were forgotten, the new toilet paper roll was replaced backward or, heaven forbid,  an empty toilet paper roll was left in the bathroom and . . . you get the picture.

    You probably know what came next, too. A little thing – my husband was 5 minutes late picking me up from work – and I hit him square in the heart with every single thing that I believed he had done wrong since the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, what I just described didn’t happen just once in our marriage but that scene was repeated over and over with few minor changes.

    Then one day, the Lord had had enough of my behavior, and He placed in my life an older Godly woman who shared her marriage with me. She talked about being a newlywed and her determination to change her husband into her idea of perfection. That continued for years until the day she received an unexpected life-changing gift from her son.

    He walked into the kitchen and said, “Mom, I’ve been teaching myself how to use my tape recorder, so I taped you and dad talking yesterday. Do you want to hear it?” She smiled as he hit “play,” but in an instant the tears flowed as she listened to the conversation with her husband and the tone of her voice. 

    She said that not only was her voice negative and her words accusing and absolutely horrible but she could not escape the hurt in her husband’s voice as he barely answered “yes” or “no” to her questions.

    In that instant, she realized that instead of praising God for her husband and all the good qualities he brought to their marriage, she was literally ripping him and the marriage into pieces. “I went to my husband immediately and asked his forgiveness for my attitude,” she said, “and then I resolved to do everything I could to be the Godly wife that the Lord had called me to be.”

    I have to tell you that I was completely convicted that day of my attitude of arguing and complaining toward my husband and our marriage, and called him at work to ask his forgiveness. And I would love to tell you that the toilet paper roll was always full after that, and anniversaries were never forgotten again. Not true.

    But somehow, socks next to the hamper were no longer as important as my acceptance and love of my husband, God’s gift to me. May it be the same with each of you.

    Father, I thank you for the gift of my husband. Help me to treat him with the love and respect that he deserves. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

• If someone were to tape record your conversations with your husband, would you be ashamed or embarrassed by what you say and how you say it?

• Would the majority of your conversations be affirming and positive or demeaning and negative?

Apply

• Praise God every day for your husband and all the unique, wonderful qualities he brings to your marriage.

• Think of ways to praise and affirm your husband as an important part of your life, and then tell him.

Power

• Proverbs 21:19 (NIV) “Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.”

• Proverbs 21:9 (NIV) “Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”

• Proverbs 31:10 (NIV) “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.”

The Very Best Medicine

 “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’” 

Genesis 21:6 (NIV)

    As a nurse, I am aware of several different medications that help a patient to heal. But there is something else that is God-given that can help you and it is laughter.  The idea is not new. It actually was God’s idea. It’s a part of His personality. In Psalms 2:4, we are told, “The One enthroned in heaven laughs.”

    Now, in that particular Scripture, God wasn’t laughing because the situation taking place was funny, but He was laughing. We are made in His image, so we can be very certain He created laughter as part of our personalities.

    There are several accounts in the Bible of people laughing. When God revealed to Abraham that he would be a father and have a son, we are told in Genesis 17:17 that “Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 

    Then in chapter 18:10 and 11: “Then the Lord said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’” Scripture tells us that Sarah was listening to this conversation and could not contain her laughter as well.

    But because the Lord is faithful, Sarah became pregnant as He had promised and gave birth to a son and named him Isaac, which means “he laughs.”

    California’s Loma Linda University published research regarding laughter. The studies show that there are very positive effects on our immune system when we laugh. They observed that laughter lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases the ability of our muscles to flex, and boosts immune function by raising levels of white blood cells, which fight infection and disease in the body.

    Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins (brain chemicals), which are the body’s natural painkillers. And if that weren’t enough, laughter produces a sense of well-being in our bodies. God absolutely knew what He was doing when he created laughter in us.

    And, did you know that up to 80 muscles are used during a big laugh? A German professor found in his studies that a ONE-MINUTE hearty laugh has the same health benefits as a 45-minute gym workout!! That’s because laughing provides a workout for the diaphragm and increases the body’s ability to use oxygen. (Stop and time a one-minute belly laugh and your daily workout is done!)

    So, is laughter good medicine for us? Absolutely. Yes, we have all experienced or are even now experiencing those times in our lives, as it says in Proverbs 14:13, where “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.” But laughter can often put a whole new outlook on tough situations.

    Think about events that have happened in your life that made you laugh out loud. How did you feel after you laughed? Sad? Discouraged? Angry? Resentful? Or did you feel like you just got an energy boost from the Lord?

    My encouragement this week, whatever you may face, is to remember that God’s gift of laughter is soothing and healing, and it is indeed the very best medicine there is.

    Father, help me to remember when I am quick to become angry or frustrated or discouraged, that I need to take a breath and simply laugh. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.  

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

• Make a list of every situation or disappointment, or frustration that has come your way this last week.

• Could any of those situations have had a more positive outcome if you had simply stopped, taken a deep breath, and laughed at what was happening?

Apply

• Memorize Psalm 126:2 this week and speak it whenever a situation occurs and you are tempted to react with anger.

• Stand in front of your mirror with a stopwatch, think of something funny that has happened, and laugh for one minute. Workout complete!

Power 

• Genesis 21:6 (NIV) “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’”

• Psalm 126:2 (NIV) “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

• Psalm 2:4 (NIV) “The One enthroned in heaven laughs . . . ”