Monday, July 10, 2006

Pieces in the Puzzle


Jeremy Postal, a regular reader of the Some Assembly Required Blog had a very insightful post on his blog on June 27th.

Jeremy lives in British Columbia and is an uniquely amazing individual. He is a Christian Youth Pastor - rock climbing - skate boarding - book reading - coffee drinking philosopher. I do not personally know this guy, but from reading his comments on my blog and on his blogs, I find him to be wise for his years. The next time you see a bunch of kids riding skate boards outside a coffee house, do not discount them as punks....as there just might be greatness there.

His post is titled Jesus Doesn't Fill Your Void (I did mention he is a youth pastor!!!), but his comments transcend religion and ring true for all aspects of life.

He compares parts of life to jigsaw puzzle pieces. One piece alone cannot fill the void, it takes all the parts to make a completed puzzle:

"......Like most people, I am yet to find a completed puzzle that has captured my imagination and devotion for longer then a brief instant. When a puzzle is finished and we lock that last key piece into place there is that fleeting moment of satisfaction, a nice picture, and then we move on with life. It looses interest real fast. However, an incomplete puzzle will keep me interested for hours; I might get up and leave the puzzle for a few minutes to go to the bathroom and get some food and I might even leave for a day to go climbing, but the incompleteness of the puzzle brings me back. There is something about searching for the pieces that is much more opium-like then actually locking the final piece into place. "

I think he is right. It is the journey, not the destination that is fascinating. I know in my own life I get too caught up looking for one piece of the puzzle that I think will give me total satisfaction. But it is never just one thing in life that brings happiness. I find we need to achieve balance with our business, family, spiritual, friendships, health and fitness, education, hobbies, etc.... We never complete the whole puzzle that is our life. We can walk away from some areas from time to time, but we need to continue searching for all the pieces in order to discover the delightful areas of life.

Thanks, Jeremy, for making me think.

Have A Great Day.

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com

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