"Choose Life"
As I began to write this article, I realized that it was going to be about life, my life and the life of every person on the face of this earth. The scripture we will focus on is Romans 8:28; "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Also, the scripture Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; "To everything there is a season, a time, for every purpose, under heaven. As you read verses 1-8, you see that each statement of time has two meanings. A time to be born - a time to die, to plant - to pluck, to kill - to heal, to break down -to build up, to weep - to laugh, to mourn - to dance, to cast stones - to gather stones, to embrace - to let go.
The reason for these scriptures will become more clear as we continue on our journey of life. A year ago, I and my congregation, left the building that we called home. The place of meeting taught me some very real lessons of life. Since circumstances did not line up with what I thought should happen, I began to take everything too personally and began to believe my ministry was over. Due to my belief system, based on lies, I started to backslide, losing confidence in myself and my calling. What was I to do? and who do I talk to? I had not really developed a level of depth in relationships with other mentors that I trusted could understand my dilemma, so I felt stranded. My only saving grace during this period was my wife. She was there for me as much as I would let her and even in that, she had enough keeping up with all her responsibilities plus my hard place. In my desperate condition, I bought myself a jigsaw puzzle. Can you believe that? An elephant, a big 3' by 3' elephant puzzle. The entire puzzle contained over 1000 pieces. To complete this project, I spent 4 to 5 months on it. I kept plodding along until it was finished. I then had it framed! Now to my point. When I looked at the cover of the box, I could see what the finished product was supposed to look like. When I opened the box and 1000 pieces were staring at me with all their different shapes, colors, and sizes, I thought "Are you crazy, Tom? Where do you begin?" Then I thought, somewhere, anywhere, just begin. In "time" you will finish it and learn from it.
What God revealed to me about life, my life, and others is this; as the box had a picture of the finished product, so do we. While in the box there were all the pieces and all of them were necessary to finish the puzzle. However, they were also opposite of each other as stated in Eccl. 3:1-8. Different shapes, sizes, and colors. Love, hate, sickness, health, fear, security, failure, success, good days and bad days, ups and downs, life and death, and everything in between. Then the scripture, Romans 8:28, became so very clear to me. God is working all things together for my good, for your good, for the good of all mankind.
In all of our lives, there are many, many, pieces to the puzzle of life. They have yet to be put in place. Now, due to the fact that our Father is putting the puzzle together for us, rest assured, our finished product will be beautiful.
Life, then for me, is allowing God to put all my pieces together. By me taking my hands off and letting God do what He does best, I can be assured when my life is being lived out on a daily basis all the honor and glory will go to the Lord.
Things are going much better for me now. I take my piece of life's puzzle, give it to the Lord every day and rest assured that all things are working for my good. Some look opposite from each other, just as it does at times for you. However, we have a promise All Things are working for us, that includes those small pieces of the puzzle that just don't seem to fit in right away. We are the product of God and all He wants is for us to choose life. Keep it Real -