Do you like puzzles? I don’t mind them—but if it’s a cool puzzle that’s not too hard, it’s snowy outside, and I got some hot chocolate, then I really enjoy them.

Now, some people like puzzles. Other people hate them. Some, like me, don’t mind them.

Our faith and lives are a lot similar to a puzzle—imagine life as some complicated, super crazy and colorful puzzle with millions of pieces. It looks almost impossible to solve, especially if you are just one piece!

Nobody knows exactly how it’s supposed to look. We might have a good idea, but we’re not going to know where every single piece goes. (Unless you’re some crazy know-it-all, but I’m not sure how you’d know all the details about every single aspect of life.)

One of my amazing small group leaders described life to me like this: we’re a puzzle piece, and when we start out on our journey, we fit into a specific place. Over time, we’re going to change, and so will our shape. We won’t end up fitting in that same specific spot, but that doesn’t mean that we will never fit anywhere else.

I love this analogy. It’s a great visual for change, life, and faith.

We often don’t feel like we belong in one place, but we’re just forcing ourselves (or our piece) into the wrong space that doesn’t fit our shape. And this—we and our shape—will change over time.

Now I want to specifically talk about faith as a confusing puzzle, like the title says.

How is the Christian faith a puzzle? Shouldn’t something that is so widely followed be self-explanatory?

Faith is not something you can define for yourself, but it is something that you can learn more about from personal experiences rather than just reading the Bible.

You see, even Christians (or maybe I should say, especially Christians) are a very wide-spread and very broken-up group of people. We have so many different denominations, there are Republicans and Democrats, there are gays and straights, there are different ethnicities, and then there are different opinions on communion, baptism, circumcision, tattoos, alcohol, piercings, and all that stuff.

But all this together does not create a beautiful image. Instead, all these pieces together clash to form a mixed-up image—it probably doesn’t even create an image because of how many different pieces there are.

What we should be looking at is the truth that we know and rely on: Jesus’s sacrifice and resurrection.

These two things are huge foundations of the Christian faith. Quite frankly, we don’t need more complicated puzzle pieces like the ones I mentioned previously because these two make the perfect image: an image of God’s love for us.

As I bring this post to a close, it’s okay if your faith seems like a puzzle. You’re not alone in that feeling and I assure you: God isn’t making it complicated for you, but rather we as humans are making it complicated, whether it’s intended or not.

Often we need something to guide us in where we put our puzzle pieces, and we can use prayer and the Bible for this! There’s all sorts of awesome wisdom in there and I totally recommend looking up some key words (you can do it in the concordance of your Bible or even google it) for encouragement or clarification!

Thanks for reading, I hope that my thoughts weren’t too scattered! (They certainly were in my head, especially after rereading everything so many times…) Have a great day!
~Willow