Looking For What’s Missing

Have you ever been looking for something specific so intently, that you totally miss it? You miss the forest for all the trees. You are looking for that future husband. Everywhere, you’re looking. Desperately looking. But where is that man hiding? Clearly he’s lost somewhere because he’s not willing to ask for directions, so you’re out here on a search and rescue mission for your man. Could this be him? How about this one? Let me try that one. Nope. All wrong. Gosh, will you ever find him? Yes … and today I will tell you exactly how! It’s the same way you will find the new job you so desperately want, the community you most want, and the friendships you’re missing. It’s all out there. Somewhere. But how in the world do you find it, because you’ve been looking and not finding. It’s a puzzle. Literally. A puzzle. Let me explain … My husband and I decided this month we wanted to spend intentional time together doing different things. One of those things is a puzzle. I bought a 1,000 piece puzzle on the Amazon, we spread out all the pieces, and over the weekend we sat down at the table together to work on it. And inevitably one thing always happens when working a puzzle … you’re absolutely convinced there’s a piece missing. You’re looking for something so specific, it seems it would be impossible to miss. You go through every piece once, then twice, and a third time. And. It’s. Not. There. There’s no way it’s on the table. You crawl around on the floor. You curse the maker of the puzzle, convinced they left a valuable piece on the factory floor because it’s straight up not here! That was us. One piece had an old style white and red life preserver on it. That’s really distinctive and specific amongst all the other pieces, but we had looked everywhere and it wasn’t there. We had the broken puzzle! Clearly this piece was missing. But really, was it? That’s rarely ever the case, yet every time, don’t we resort to believing it’s missing … until we find it. And when do we find it? Rarely ever when we’re relentlessly searching for it, and usually always when we’ve moved on looking for something else. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the piece you were previously searching for just appears. How could it have possibly been there all along? Isn’t that crazy? Could this same crazy thing be happening for my single ladies searching everywhere for the right man? Could this same crazy thing be happening for the girl desperately searching for the perfect new opportunity amongst all these closed doors? You’re at the point of giving up, believing you’re broken and what you’re looking for was left on the factory floor of Heaven somewhere, and God forgot to include it in your box. Now you’re frustrated and totally ready to give up because you can’t find what you truly want. What you need. What you think would most make you happy. But, Sis, it’s there. And Jesus tells us exactly how to find it. Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” All these things you’re looking for, they’re there, and you will find them, but only when you start seeking God first. As long as you put your need for a relationship before your need for God, you will be frustrated in your search. As long as your career comes first, you will get burned out. As long as money, security and stability are on the top of the list, the top of your list will suck. You’ll have it all and be totally unfulfilled and unhappy still. But Jesus promises if you seek God’s way, his will, and who he is creating you to be FIRST, everything else will be given to you. You find that missing puzzle piece when you quit obsessing over it. And, Sis, you find all that you desire in your life when your first desire becomes God. Can you truly say, “God if you’re in it, I want it, but if you’re not, I don’t?” Can you loosen your grip, open your hands, and allow God to