Puzzle Pieces– thoughts from the Campus Connector
On November 7th (the day after the election), I was riding the campus connector to St. Paul, still half asleep, checking Facebook on my phone. As I was glancing at random photos and reading my friends’ opinions on the results of the election, I came across a fellow LCM leader, Bryna’s, Facebook status. It read, “Finishing work in a deserted conference center at 2 a.m. man do I love reporting. :)” My first subconscious thought: oh my gosh that sounds absolutely awful. I kept scrolling through, but found myself scrolling back up to Bryna’s status, re-reading it, noticing the smiley face, and thinking, “That’s actually really awesome that she’s so passionate about what she does. It’s a good thing she loves reporting, otherwise I wouldn’t know what the heck was going on.”
This is going to sound really really cheesy, but that’s okay with me. After re-reading Bryna’s status, I woke up immediately and got really excited about life, realizing that everyone that I would interact with that day has a passion and purpose—discovered or not, it’s there. Then, and here’s where it gets cheesy/BEAUTIFUL, I began to visualize the world as a giant puzzle, and God playing the role of the puzzle-maker. God’s just hanging out at his puzzle table, maybe listening to some Christmas music and eating some Oreos, putting together this puzzle of the world. We, as humans, are the pieces of the puzzle. So now I’m visualizing myself and everyone around me as puzzle pieces… just running around searching for the place to ‘fit in’ perfectly. I really don’t like the idea of the phrase ‘fitting in’ because, for me, it comes with connotations of conforming to society. Fitting in, in this situation, is more along the lines of discovering your passion and feeling confident and motivated with where you’re at in life at a particular moment.
So, amidst all of this discerning, searching, and discovering our passions, there is often a feeling of loss and helplessness. “Everyone around me seems to have their futures all figured out, and I still have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.” While I can pretty much guarantee that no one feels 100% confident in what the future holds for them, in this situation, I’m picturing God getting distracted with all of the fun he’s having doing this huge puzzle, that he doesn’t notice the lost pieces that he dropped on the floor. Or maybe he’s an outside-of-the-puzzle-first kind of guy and your place is in the middle of the puzzle… your feeling of being lost and unsure is completely intentional on God’s part here.
In any case, after thinking about and building this idea for a few weeks, I’m comforted over and over again by the idea that God has a plan and a purpose for everyone. Everyone has a place in the great puzzle of the world. And even when we think we’ve found our place in the puzzle–or our passion in life, there’s always the possibility of God starting a new puzzle… rotating, changing, and moving the pieces around to challenge us and show us new possibilities.
So, may this blogpost provide some sort of comfort and relief for you as we continue our journey into not only finals week, but also the season of Advent—a season of waiting and preparation for big things to come 🙂
God’s Peace,
Kalysta Schlitter