“Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.” (I John 2:15-17 MSG)
As I watched a small group of pre-school children rotate through the various splay stations after a short instructional period on the ABC rug near the whiteboard, where the lead teacher made everything come alive with an enthusiastic voice and demonstrative movements, there was one child who sat the puzzle station where I was assisting. He was doing a great job, making progress, intuitively inserting pieces of a hard plastic puzzle together. He picks up a square piece and continuously tries to make it fit into a round space. Repeatedly he tries to make it fit and he refuses my assistance; actually pushes my hand aside. This repetitive effort to make the piece fit because of the child’s persistence resulted in him just leaving the puzzle unfinished when the small bell, used to let the children know it was time to move to another station, was rung. The child moves on with no remorse, regret, or raised level of frustration and he leaves the square piece sitting on top of the round space, even though it did not fit.
I thought about the child’s persistent efforts to make the puzzle piece fit into the wrong place and I looked back at my life as a young child and even a young adult. I realized in my pondering that I wasted so much precious time trying to make a square piece fit into a round space. That specific square piece was “me.” I was like the pre-school child, continuously trying to fit in spaces where I really did not belong. During those times I too had no remorse, regret, or raised level of frustration as I moved from one station of life to another. I just let things be as they were. Why wasn’t I one of the cool kids? The answer: I was a square piece in a round space. Why couldn’t I dance and fit in at parties like my peers? The answer again: I was a square piece in a round space. Why did I eventually learn to stop tagging along with the defiant, the devious, and the delinquent kids when I was young? You got it! I was a square piece only capable of trying to fit in a round space. Fitting in was my unspoken, and at times unconscious, motivation.
I’m glad, even though it was late in life, that I realized that I needed to find the square space for the square piece, called ‘me,” to fit into. Yes, finally I stopped trying to fit in round spaces, made peace with God, and let Him be in charge of placing me where he wanted me to be; a place that was perfectly designed for the purpose He always had for me while I was still in my mother’s womb. Thank Him for His patience, compassion, and mercy! Thank Him for the straight path that had ample space for me and with lessons learned, took me off many crooked paths.
If you are facing some frustrations trying to be like everyone else and trying to fit your square piece into a round place, ask the Lord to open your eyes and guide you to the your square space that is reserved for you and reveals your purpose in life; the one that He has precisely for you. Now don’t look back too long. See where you are right now. Make the adjustments He leads you to make. Stop trying to fit your square piece into a round space. I love you! Be blessed!
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21 NIV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King