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You know, all of us have missing pieces in our lives: those things we really desire and long for but for some reason, we just don’t have them. They can be little things or big ones, but they sit there in the back of your mind, always gnawing at you a little, and you feel like something important is really missing. Now the key issue for us as believers is how do we handle these missing pieces? As I see it, you have several options open to you.
You can become obsessed with what’s missing and devote all your energy and time to trying to find that missing piece, trying to get what you think is essential for your happiness and fulfillment. When that happens, you become a self-focused person, and if you’ll notice, people who are self-focused are usually pretty miserable. And obviously, that self-centered attitude is sinful and will be harmful to your spiritual life.
You may become bitter and angry about the missing piece. Has that happened to you? Let me just briefly remind you that bitterness always backfires on you and turns you into an unlovely and unhappy person. When you start to feel that it’s unfair that you don’t have what others have and you’ve been dealt a rotten hand, then you’ve become bitter.
Or you can learn to accept the missing piece and focus your life on what you do have and the good things God has done for you. Eventually you can even thank God for the missing piece because you realize that through it you have come to know him better.
I can relate to all three reactions, because I’ve done them all. For ten years I was obsessed with my missing piece, and let me tell you, those were ten tough years. Often I found myself feeling bitter and angry that others, seemingly less deserving, had what I wanted so badly.
But I finally turned the missing piece over to the Lord, and God gave me many other things to fill up the space, and showed me that without that missing piece, I would never have known him as I should. And knowing God better and better is the bottom-line answer to all our missing pieces.
How are you dealing with the missing pieces in your life? Well, I want to encourage you to start learning to thank God for them. And I want to urge you to make getting to know God better your highest priority.
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