There are days – no – there are weeks. No. There are YEARS, you feel like you just don’t fit in. Period. It is such an insecure feeling to think you just don’t belong anywhere. We all feel that way from time to time. There are tragedies and traumas that can completely change the landscape of your life, and make you feel lost in a place that used to be wonderfully familiar.
I have had some events in my life that have left me unsettled, uprooted, and ultimately feeling like I was a random, misplaced piece of some 500 piece puzzle, in some random dusty attic. You do not choose to feel that way; it literally just happens.
It can happen from many different scenarios leaving you feeling awkwardly out of place. It could be the death of a mate. Maybe as a couple you were best friends with another couple. Your mate dies, and now instead of two couples, there is “them” and “you”. This screams misplaced. It could be a job change where you went from everyone knowing and adoring you, to being the new employee where no one knows you, and no one seems to want to know you. This screams insecurity. Maybe you were relocated to another state or another culture. Your misplacement could be as simple (and complex) as a language barrier. This screams frustration. Many things on this life journey seem to be lurking around every corner, hoping to unsettle you and leave you in a sad heap of lost self worth.
If we are ever to fit in, no matter where life takes us, we first have to truly embrace our own worth. We have to know that part of fitting in, is being true to the puzzle piece that we ARE!
My worth is NOT contingent on the seasons of life
We remain valuable in EVERY season, and speaking of the seasons of life, to everything there IS a season. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 gives many examples of the different (and normal) life seasons:
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
For me, I went through a personal season of being half of a couple (for 27 years) and now I am in a season of walking alone. I have had to choose to step back and find where I NOW fit, after a lot of tears and frustration. I now see there were hundreds of other pieces (corners, jagged edges, large ones, small ones) that had to be locked into each other to even get me to where I am right NOW! This has taken time. It’s key to realize over and over that this is a journey!
Here is a prime example of a season of my journey: 15 years ago when my husband died I was not an author. I always wrote poems and songs, but it was never what I would have referred to as “my purpose”.
It.Is.Now.
My writing comes from my journey alone, and I fit in it perfectly. I could even venture to say, it feels right. After all that went wrong and felt wrong, now it’s all right. It was a journey of seasons, a lifetime of experiences to get me to THIS exact spot in time (and ON time)!
I learned over time that I am NOT just a random misplaced piece of a puzzle
I am not just missing from some random puzzle in some random dusty attic. I am THE missing piece. There was a 500 piece puzzle out there missing just ONE piece to complete it. Yup, that’d be ME! Nothing random about THAT!
Guess what? The same goes for YOU!
We all have great worth, we all belong, and we are all important. You were made to fulfill a specific purpose, and to be the piece that links all the other pieces together.
This, my friend, is PURPOSE. I think the word purpose is overused, but underestimated. By definition purpose means, “the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used. An intended or desired result; end; aim; goal; determination; resoluteness. The subject in hand; the point at issue; practical result, effect, or advantage; to act to good purpose.”
Really the whole point of putting together a puzzle is to finish it and see the final, completed picture. Do not ever, for a minute, think you are NOT important. If this is where you find yourself, you need to go buy a 500 piece puzzle; take ONE piece out and throw it in the trash. Then take a couple weeks to finish the puzzle (in your spare time), and see how the picture looks with ONE. MISSING. PIECE.
I think you get the picture (pun intended). #SeeYourOwnWorthIn2019