Puzzles are simultaneously my greatest enemy and my best friend.
At first, they look confusing and hard, but grow more and more beautiful as completion nears. .
Over the last several months, and even more so in the last two weeks, the concept puzzles have been greatly impressed on me, whether that be through words or people or not-so-random things.
I like challenge. I like to seek out the things that for me are difficult to step into. Maybe that is a 5,000 piece jigsaw with pieces that look so blended and similar, or maybe it's a fragile, tangled necklace or set of headphones with a gigantic knot. Maybe it's a room or house that looks like something off the reality TV show, Hoarding, that you look at and think "where do I even start?" Maybe it's the crazy act of doing a Rubik's Cube to warp your brain for a while.
The knots and puzzles and mysteries and messy spaces are my favorite pastimes. I love things that look like a mountain from the outside. I love when my first reaction to something is "this is going to be hard" because my next thought is usually "Just watch me."
It may be really hard. It may be really scary, and frankly as I get further in I usually question why I started it (i.e. camp last summer in a far away place). I inevitably resist change of seasons and dread the start of something perplexing and unusual, when I could choose to stay safe. However, at the end of that change is always the start of something brand new, a new "puzzle" in life to tackle, a mystery to me.
You figure out the puzzle by continuing to pick up more pieces and try them out until one fits perfectly. Take for example, the Rubik's cube- you keep twisting it around until you can complete all six sides of color. Sometimes you have to quit for a while, or sometimes you complete only one side but then realize that you messed it up in pursuit of that next color.
If you give up on life's puzzles (less than ideal circumstances) at the first sign of hardship, where is the reward in seeing the growth of the puzzle, and eventually seeing all of the beauty and work come together after such a time?
They require diligence and patience amidst frustration and obstacles.
At first, they look confusing and hard, but grow more and more beautiful as completion nears. .
Over the last several months, and even more so in the last two weeks, the concept puzzles have been greatly impressed on me, whether that be through words or people or not-so-random things.
I like challenge. I like to seek out the things that for me are difficult to step into. Maybe that is a 5,000 piece jigsaw with pieces that look so blended and similar, or maybe it's a fragile, tangled necklace or set of headphones with a gigantic knot. Maybe it's a room or house that looks like something off the reality TV show, Hoarding, that you look at and think "where do I even start?" Maybe it's the crazy act of doing a Rubik's Cube to warp your brain for a while.
The knots and puzzles and mysteries and messy spaces are my favorite pastimes. I love things that look like a mountain from the outside. I love when my first reaction to something is "this is going to be hard" because my next thought is usually "Just watch me."
It may be really hard. It may be really scary, and frankly as I get further in I usually question why I started it (i.e. camp last summer in a far away place). I inevitably resist change of seasons and dread the start of something perplexing and unusual, when I could choose to stay safe. However, at the end of that change is always the start of something brand new, a new "puzzle" in life to tackle, a mystery to me.
You figure out the puzzle by continuing to pick up more pieces and try them out until one fits perfectly. Take for example, the Rubik's cube- you keep twisting it around until you can complete all six sides of color. Sometimes you have to quit for a while, or sometimes you complete only one side but then realize that you messed it up in pursuit of that next color.
If you give up on life's puzzles (less than ideal circumstances) at the first sign of hardship, where is the reward in seeing the growth of the puzzle, and eventually seeing all of the beauty and work come together after such a time?
Did you know that there are people that are puzzles? They take diligence and patience, too. Someone that no one seems to really understand or care to dig past the surface to perhaps unlock their heart to truly hear that them- to truly hear that all of their paradoxical self is deeply loved and so worth getting to know.
Humans are such enigmas, but the problem is that most of us do not realize it because we do not take the time to see the enigma within a person. We accept them at face value and we stop there. But guys, we are made to love and to have community within each other's puzzles. Each of us will meet different people that we consider mysteries to us- people that we cannot understand; but maybe, like me, you are so drawn to that enigma like a magnet, even though it's new, like you just want to understand them in a way no one else does, to love them fiercely.
Those people are my absolute favorite people for me. (Much love to my bacon-wrapped enigma; you are a perfect mystery with a key that I am so grateful to have and you're stuck with me forever).
I do not think we can ever fully 100% get puzzles. God places people and circumstances in our lives that we can never wrap our minds around completely, things only He is supposed to understand because He knows our hearts. But, I would venture to say that it's an irreplaceable feeling to know that someone out there is genuinely interested in your puzzling self, finds you worthy of picking up your pieces, to ask you what is in your puzzle.
Some people will criticize your puzzle. Some people will tell you not to continue seeking the pieces of the puzzle, or that there are puzzles not worth valuing. But keep going! Keep seeking the puzzle pieces even if you are seeking alone. Because one day, even if that day is when all is unveiled, you will find that the mystery you've been diligently seeking to understand has had a purpose all along, and the puzzle has been worth every time you've wanted to quit or wondered if it really mattered.
Humans are such enigmas, but the problem is that most of us do not realize it because we do not take the time to see the enigma within a person. We accept them at face value and we stop there. But guys, we are made to love and to have community within each other's puzzles. Each of us will meet different people that we consider mysteries to us- people that we cannot understand; but maybe, like me, you are so drawn to that enigma like a magnet, even though it's new, like you just want to understand them in a way no one else does, to love them fiercely.
Those people are my absolute favorite people for me. (Much love to my bacon-wrapped enigma; you are a perfect mystery with a key that I am so grateful to have and you're stuck with me forever).
I do not think we can ever fully 100% get puzzles. God places people and circumstances in our lives that we can never wrap our minds around completely, things only He is supposed to understand because He knows our hearts. But, I would venture to say that it's an irreplaceable feeling to know that someone out there is genuinely interested in your puzzling self, finds you worthy of picking up your pieces, to ask you what is in your puzzle.
Some people will criticize your puzzle. Some people will tell you not to continue seeking the pieces of the puzzle, or that there are puzzles not worth valuing. But keep going! Keep seeking the puzzle pieces even if you are seeking alone. Because one day, even if that day is when all is unveiled, you will find that the mystery you've been diligently seeking to understand has had a purpose all along, and the puzzle has been worth every time you've wanted to quit or wondered if it really mattered.
