Finding the Missing Piece

I have been busy working on our outdoor Christmas decorations. It is a task I have enjoyed doing for many years in spite of the frigid temperatures and frustrations with inoperable lights. Unfortunately, the vision in my head can’t always be funded.  Once again this year I have tackled the task of putting it all together outside.  It never fails that there always seems to be one of two crucial pieces I need to make it happen. This year the culprit was a cord splitter to finish off the power connections for my production. I ventured out and was successful in locating the missing piece to my Christmas decoration puzzle. 

Sometimes in life it seems that something is missing.  I had a time in my life when I was there.  I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know how to fix it. I would go to church on Sundays and feel worse when I left the parking lot. I wondered what was wrong with me.   My life was miserable and out of sync. 

I tried to make things work by fitting pieces in my life that just didn’t work. I tried several areas of ministry thinking those would fulfill that area missing.  

It took a time of soul searching and a bold move to figure it out.  The missing piece was that I was missing peace.  I wasn’t happy.  

Finding peace isn’t always a tangible you can recognize. Peace isn’t so easy to achieve.  Jesus told the disciples that He could give peace but it wasn’t as the world defines peace.  So how does the world define peace?  It usually involves money, success and contentment.  You and I know that these things are fleeting.  This kind of peace doesn’t last.   So what kind of peace was Jesus talking about?  He was talking about us basing our peace on Him instead of the fickle things of the world.  This kind of peace means we cast - or give - our cares to Him.  We do that by talking to Him about it and not trying to figure everything out ourselves. We put way too much on ourselves when we don’t have to.  

I finally got to a place where I realized I needed to step out of the life I was living and make decisions I wouldn’t have made before.  People will not always understand your journey.  I’m sure people would have described me as making selfish decisions but there are times you simply have to pursue your happiness.   I even went away for a week to a monastery to spend time fasting, praying and listening to God.  In all my life before that week, I had never experienced God in the way I did that week.  I really can’t put it into words for you. I don’t think anyone could.  It’s something that only you can experience.  

Sometimes life feels like putting up Christmas decorations. If you want to pull it all together, it takes finding that missing piece.  The missing piece could be that you are missing peace.