The Leftover Piece

You've been there. You know what I'm talking about although at this moment in time you're highly confused about the title of this blog.

Sometimes you need a prop to do the explaining for you, so here are your instructions. Go and find two puzzles. Take one puzzle and put it together leaving one piece out. Then open the other puzzle and take out one piece and sit it beside the final piece left to go into the finished puzzle. NOW, let's talk.

You know that odd puzzle piece, the one that doesn't fit? That piece is what I'm talking about. The one who can't find their place, never quite fits in with the group, can't ever make it into the acceptance circle. The whole be yourself, be unique thing only works when you have friends who support you for who you are.

You will always be yourself around yourself...but is that enough?

Everyone is trying to find their place in this world. Like the Michael W. Smith song, it seems next to impossible sometimes. Quoting Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz "there's no place like home" but to me that only works for some people. I want to go and see and do...but not alone. I want to feel what I see other people feeling, I want to have what they have, and the memories they have...

I want to feel like I am a part of something big...and I want to get to the place 10 years from now...to where I still have at least one person to call and talk to where I can say the phrase "do you remember the time..." Is that too much to ask for? Is that too much to handle?

I watch people in college all the time who have found the wrong crowd to be a part of. They never quite fit in, and eventually they are left alone. Or the friends who drop me for the bigger name, but when they get in trouble they call me. But it only lasts until they are out of trouble and then once again, they dump me, because for some reason I'm not good enough.

Christ is supposed to be everything to us, yet in the beginning he created Eve to be a companion to Adam even though Adam had God to walk and talk to every day!

Sometimes vision can be blinded when we look at that complete puzzle and the one piece left out. There are two different perspectives to look at; no I believe there are three... First you have the person who looks at the complete puzzle and they smile and think "yeah that's my crew." They feel they have made it as they have intertwined relationships with many people that they can count on for anything. Secondly, you have the person that only notices the leftover piece that doesn't fit. All they can see is how that piece doesn't belong and how it is all alone.

The third and final view is the optimist. They see the finished puzzle and have the feeling of accomplishment although they themselves were not the ones to build it. Also, they feel the pain of the odd piece left out, but here is the difference. That third person makes the decision to find a place for the left out piece. Mr. Third decides to start another puzzle with the one odd piece...but how can you build a puzzle with just one piece? How can you have a network of things intertwined if there is only one?

It's impossible. You know that oldies song "It Takes Two"? Everything is better in pairs. My challenge is to dare you to look past your perfect little cookie cutter life. Find the one most unsuspecting person who looks alone and invite them in. I don't mean you feel sorry for them so you say they can hang out...

I mean find Jesus within you and decide on your own that you WANT to be friends with the person who can't seem to keep any of their own. YOU make the first move. YOU get out of your comfort zone. YOU take your little 5 piece puzzle and make it 6...and then 7...and then 8...

It's not that harder to say come hang out. The hard part comes when you make the choice to start a relationship with the person and you decide to ask them to hang out the second time...

You want to grow in Christ? It doesn't have to do with the "be the bigger person deal". It has to do with being Christ. Shining the light of Jesus isn't enough if we stand in one place. It's when you touch someone with the light of Christ and now they have the light too...that's how the light spreads and darkness fades.