Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Patience (08/21/08)
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TITLE: Moments Connect Our Lives | Previous Challenge Entry
By Becca Gossman
08/22/08 -
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I once read an article entitled, “Moments Connect our Lives, Good or bad.” In a nutshell it said that life is made up of moments and those moments add up into hours and days and years. I call it the puzzle theory. I love puzzles. When I look at a new puzzle box, I think “what a beautiful picture.” And then I open up the box and inside the box is 1000s of little cardboard pieces, little pieces of the picture that make up the whole.
I have until recently been a “big picture” person. I wanted to see the whole picture right from the start, all the who’s, what’s, where’s, why’s and when’s. And I wanted to know what was going to happen in life, and I wanted to know right now.
But God has been working on me. Often it’s been very painful, sometimes the puzzle pieces of my life situations were graphic and showed a great deal of what the big picture looked like; and other times, those little pieces showed nothing, as far as I could tell, about what was happening in my life.
At age 21 my two-year-old son was killed instantly in an automobile accident. I wasn’t sure I would survive. It was only through the grace and mercy of God that I did. That particular piece of the puzzle didn’t seem to fit my idea of the big picture. I wanted to know “why me?” But God said, “Be patient.”
At 41 I was diagnosed with mouth cancer. That one word alone (cancer) is one of the most frightening words I know. The Lord began working in my life. I don’t know why it was so painful to have those little puzzle pieces tugged and pushed and snapped into place, but I reached the point where I know that God was in control, and that was all I needed to know.
The night before the surgery, I begged God to deliver me, He said, “Be patient.” The next day I went in not knowing what I would look like when I came out. I was told I might have to have a trach, that I could lose half my face, that it could have spread too far. When I woke I still had my face, I had 32 staples from chin to ear, and, Praise God, I didn’t have a trach. I felt I was given a second chance to make my life count.
Psalm 40:2, 3 (NKJV) says, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, and set my feet upon a Rock, and established my steps… blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.”
Life has been painful at times, but life has been good, and I have learned through these years of “waiting patiently,” that God cares for my basic needs, that this particular puzzle project (my life) is God’s, not mine.
I have learned that God is for me and that He is cheering me on in Life. His plan is total, not partial (Romans 8:37-39 NKJV). I have learned that God’s love for me will endure forever (Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV); and that His purpose for my life is good, not evil.
I look back on the bad times, and though at the time they seemed so terrible, and I was often afraid that I would not even survive, I have come to know that I am who I am because of the things that I have endured. In going through those times, I experienced a total acceptance, love and comfort from God. There is a breaking that sets in when facing difficult times that allows God to move in and work in my life. God allowed me to go through those things and in the process matured me so that I would grow to lean on Him more and more for strength.
I know that one day the final puzzle piece will be put into place, and I will see heaven, and I will see His face. But until, He continues says to me, “Be patient.”
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