My life is a puzzle box

August 5, 2010 in Finding Passion, No More Mondays, Personal Development with 8 Comments

This week I met with a former pastor who gave me this description of his current situation:  “My life is a puzzle box – all the pieces are there but the picture on the front has been torn off.  I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like.”

His income has gone up dramatically in the last couple of years allowing him to tithe more than his entire income seven years ago.

But financial success does not remove the questions about proper direction.  Faster, bigger and more are sometimes just that – faster, bigger and more.  Ultimately we want to see that picture of our life – a completed whole.

If I try to do something noble, humanitarian or Godly that has nothing to do with who I really am, I may look good to others and to myself for a period of time.  But the fact that I am not being authentic will eventually have consequences.  I may end up doing more damage than if I had not attempted this particular area of “success.”  Trappist monk Thomas Merton addressed this when he said, “There is in all visible things….a hidden wholeness.”

We’re all looking for that completed picture on the front of our puzzle box – our “hidden wholeness.”  Don’t be content until yours comes into view.

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  • Paula

    I believe that with all my heart. In the past few years I’ve improved my financial situation through a good job and am able to provide for me and my kids, but there is a big hole in my life because I spend 40 hours a week in a job that doesn’t use my best gifts and doesn’t fulfill me. So, I’ve started back to school to get into the healthcare industry so that I can help others and feel that I’m serving God and humankind plus make a good salary. I feel like I’ve been putting my puzzle together but am still missing pieces. I stumble on them here and there, and then put them into my me puzzle.

  • http://wwww.livinglifebydesign.com Carma

    I love that quote by Thomas Merton. Our ‘hidden wholeness’. The very thing we are in constant search for…to complete our picture. Thanks, Dan, for reminding us that the ‘wholeness’ doesn’t come in financial success or in faster, bigger, and more. It comes in being who we are designed to be.

  • Sarina

    I love this word picture, my life or your life as a puzzle box (and some of us having the front picture torn off the puzzle box). A word picture explains a concept in a way that make it memorable and understandable. Sometimes the word picture resonates within us, giving us new motivation. Sometimes the word picture just helps other people “get it” when we try to explain. The word picture of the puzzle box got me to “puzzling” over what picture would be on the front of my box. Thank you.

  • http://48days.com Barbara W

    I love the puzzle analogy. I feel that I have all the pieces and have been slowly putting them together. Without the picture, this is taking much longer than I thought it would. Being authentic is important to me and I feel that I am not being authentic in my work. I feel that it is time to move on. I’m waiting (as patiently as possible) for God to show me the picture of my puzzle so I can continue to do good work.

  • http://www.joshbulloc.com Josh Bulloc

    Dan,

    This is why I live your goal setting worksheet, it makes me look beyond what society thinks success is and define it for myself.

    Josh Bulloc
    Kansas City, MO

  • Bob

    I once worked at an 8 hour a day job for the government had 10 years in and as a disabled veteran and 10 years with the government I could’nt be fired or layed off. So what did I do? I quit that job and entered the private job market in the oil field. Well 30 years has passed and it has been an adventure,I’m 62 and retirement is not in my future. Of all the things I have learned after leaving a “secure” job with the government is that security can be found in one of two places. Security can be found in the dictionary and in Jesus Christ, one is “A” word and the other is “The Word” . To look for security in any other place then Jesus is futile at best.The fears have left me and opportunities are there for the taking and yes I’m secure in Jesus and in what ever I lay my hand to will prosper.

  • http://blackpenguin.net free online puzzle games

    Wonderful blog! I really love how it is easy on my eyes and also the data are well written. I am wondering how I can be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!

  • http://www.cargames60.com car games

    My life is a puzzle box – all the pieces are there but the picture
    on the front has been torn off.  I don’t know what it’s supposed to look
    like. something like me. oh..

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