Life is Like a Jigsaw Puzzle

 Life is sometimes like a jigsaw puzzle, which has many pieces. It takes lots of time and effort to decide where each piece goes and how it fits in with the rest of the puzzle to create a whole (hopefully beautiful) image. But for caregivers, it's often even more complicated. I think it's more like someone put all the pieces in a bag. Shook it up real good, then dumped it out and said, "Good luck, have fun!"

Maybe for some of us, it's even worse than that. It's more like someone took 3, 4, or 5 puzzles. They mixed all the pieces together and then separated them back out into piles. Now you're left trying to find a picture with mismatched pieces. Some of them might go together, some probably won't. It's more likely that you don't even have a complete picture. Frustrating? Yes. That's the point.

I keep asking myself why I'm so frustrated. Why am I so short-tempered at seemingly silly stuff? More likely than not, it's caregiver burnout. I don't even have all the right pieces, let alone the ability (or patience) to sit and put them all together. 

Can we find a place to "give it all to Jesus" when there are so many things pulling for our attention and requiring action? It's not like we can stop and take a breather. For many of us, it's an all-day 24-7 thing. There are no breaks, and even if there are, you're on-call. When the pieces of our days don't come together as planned, or make a picture we were not expecting, it's frustrating and discouraging. All we can do is encourage our own hearts to keep running back to Him. He's not afraid of all the pieces, extra pieces, or missing pieces. He'll take our brokenness and make something beautiful out of it. How? I have no idea!

Isaiah 61:2-3 reminds us that He is coming to do, take action, be present. He comes to:

• Comfort the mourning
• Console those who mourn
• Give beauty for ashes
• Give oil of joy for mourning
• Clothe the heavy-hearted with joy
• Call us trees of righteousness

Notice that this passage mentions "mourning" three times. And they are all from the same Hebrew word (to mourn). I love that He included that so emphatically in the package! He cares about our fragmented hearts and emotions. And He's not afraid to admit it! 

Today, I'll remind myself that God is acquainted with my grief. He won't run away or look away, instead, He covers my shame with His glory and clothes me with His joy, even when I don't feel it. All the puzzle pieces don't have to make sense to me, because He knows exactly what the picture looks like and how it all goes together to bring Him glory. It's okay if I don't understand, because He is the one doing all the work! I'll let Him have control today, by trusting Him with my whole heart. Will you join me?

Check out my latest release. Command Your Morning is a 31-day devotional that is focused on taking charge of your soul and day in the morning and trusting God that the rest of the day will follow suit! You can get the eBook from my shop at Buy Me A Coffee. Or the print and Kindle versions are now available in my Amazon Shop.