Have you ever worked one of those puzzles where every piece is the same shape and size? Any piece of the puzzle will fit anywhere in the puzzle. However, just because it fits, doesn't mean it belongs.
Sometimes I feel like one of those puzzle pieces. I've been able to fit in pretty much anywhere. According to the Strengthsfinder Test, one of my top five strengths is Adaptability. I'm a go with the flow kind of girl. I often fly by the seat of my pants and appear to be a social butterfly.
However, sometimes I recognize that, also like that puzzle piece, just because I fit, doesn't mean I belong. Belonging means there are smooth transitions between me and those around me. We meld together to make one cohesive picture. We remain individuals, but don't feel or appear to be out of place. The picture would be incomplete without each individual being in the place designed for them.
There are times that I feel like I try so hard to blend in with the people around me that I feel lost in the world. It's like I'm one of those same size, same shape pieces, but from a different puzzle.
I remind myself that I am, indeed, from a different puzzle... I am not of this world. This is a temporary place for me. I will never truly fit in here in the most complete, perfect way. Only with The Master Artist will I ever find my true place. So I must keep seeking him and maybe just a small section of the Great Puzzle that is life will begin to take form and make sense.
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:2-3
Those four words: "You don't look sick." Oh, how they can hurt.
Most often, these words are applied to people who have "hidden diseases." Those diseases that eat away our bodies from the inside out, invisible to the casual observer, but very well known by the one afflicted.
It hurts to feel judged by people who know nothing about you. They assess the situation based on the few things they have heard or observed, yet never take the time to see what's inside. They look and decide and say things like "you don't look sick" or "if you are hurting you must have some unconfessed sin."
Have you heard these things? Have you said these things?
Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)
Often the hidden sickness isn't physical, but emotional or mental. We look at a person's current situation and make assumptions about their spiritual worthiness based on the sin we see them walking in at the moment. We forget to consider what may have occurred or is occurring in that person's life journey that brought them to this current moment.
Many people will say something along the lines of "well, you just don't know what they may have gone through, or are going through right now." So true. However, my observation is that this courtesy of considering such things often only applies to those people we have determined worthy of grace and mercy.
Jesus also said, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:1-3)
My heart breaks to see Christian brothers and sisters who despise and reject another based on their own assessment of that person... "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)
Let us stop judging others. Let us remember that the same price has been paid for every sin... redemption through the precious blood of Christ Jesus. If we cannot bring ourselves to love someone, can we at least agree to pray for them? Can we lift them up to the Great Physician who desires to heal everyone, especially those faulty folks who are striving each day to try to become more like Him? So what if they aren't there yet? Who is?
