Puzzle Pieces

 "Jesus's invitation is not for us to affirm Him as king, but to surrender to His reign."

I typed out the longest, most real (I know you're shocked) rambling ever - and hit post.

Promptly facebook crashed and then shut down. Disappeared. Gone.

Which reminds me I really should return to paper and pencil.

It seems fitting for today though. In a week's time we went from 3 running cars to 1 car totalled and no running cars. The bug zapper quit zapping the bugs 3 months after purchase. It promised to last 5 years. The dishwasher is making this noise that I am positive is not good. The washing machine makes it to the spin cycle and gets stuck. You have to remember to go turn it off or spins all the day. My computer died a few months ago and I've been sharing with Xman - which has been fine until his time management issue and a digital learning day through kinks into my own work schedule.

I could ramble on but suffice it to say - Murphy, I'm WAY over my 3.

I went downstairs early this week and brought up this puzzle.

Now if my own people knew me well - they'd worry.

They may should start making me a bedazzled straight jacket when that happens.

I've long given up on puzzles being some sort of family fun around here. My teenagers would have to prioritize people over screens and that's a whole different post.

I bring up a puzzle when I can't get the pieces of my own life to fall quite right. And I make tea and I sit. I solve the problem that can be solved - where the pieces go.

As I cranked up the Bethel Music album and sipped my tea, I picked up one piece at a time and thought about this idea of how much we are made to carry.

A few months ago I listened to a sermon that talked about how we view that laundry list of things as our burdens.

What if it's not our burdens though?

What if that's just our load?

Does changing the verbage change your way of thinking?

I've been soaking that idea today. My load is the teenagers, the cars, the appliances, the parent who had surgery....all the things.

Not burdens.

Just my load.

This morning a friend said "It's supposed to be hard."

That resonated big with me.

I think when life isn't easy that we think we aren't happy.

What if the true mission is to CHOOSE joy while carrying your load?

What if happy and easy was never the goal?

Mama Warriors, when my computer crashed, I got my box of greeting cards, a good pen and my address book. I rerouted my desire to make words to what was truly pulling at my heart in the first place.

You see, writing is my exhale. It's how I remember to breathe.

But sometimes I forget it's also my gift. Others first.

I wrote my cards out and the words for those came easily whereas the words to the first time I tried to type this did not.

And then, when the addresses were on, the stamps placed, then I came back and I typed in less than five minutes what took me an hour earlier.

What if we leaned into the load?

What if we CHOSE joy?

What if put the tug first and the want second?

What if we prayed BIG for joy rather than small for survival?

What if we embraced that all the puzzle pieces are ours and we are worthy, competent and able to carry them all WITH joy?