Time to Shift Perspectives

I’m a jigsaw puzzler. As I near finishing one puzzle, I’m already contemplating the next one I’ll tackle. While I can’t bring myself to break apart my completed work as soon as it’s done, I am thinking about what I’ll work on next. That was my story right before this past holiday season. I got a new puzzle board for Christmas that revitalized my puzzling experience. I have a room and a table that I used previously. My cats, however, began to enjoy the space more than me. I’d find their paw prints on my table, puzzle pieces scattered about, and bite marks in my pieces. 

One of the experiences gained from puzzling is the importance of perspective. If you are holding a piece the wrong way, it’s never going to fit. No matter how much you try. If you force it, it throws the whole puzzle off because nothing else will fit the way it should. It’s reminiscent of our lives. One object that doesn’t belong or one thing that doesn’t quite fit can disrupt the peace. I experienced this at work recently while brainstorming some project teams. I was struggling to equitably adjust team sizes to how much of a service area they’d be covering. The task seemed insurmountable for the size of my team. Until I shifted my thinking. While talking it out one day, I realized that I was looking at the service area in terms of equitability all wrong. Once I changed the lens, it became a lot easier to split up the area across the teams I had. 

That’s life. Sometimes, we have to pause and look at the situation before us through a different lens. Not all solutions to the situation we encounter will be one size fits all. I thought deeply about this when reflecting on a situation that a loved one was going through with their child. The existence of many of life’s problems are not brand new, but they may be new to us. What worked for one family may not necessarily work for another. These types of situations, along with our daily living, often require a shift in our thinking.  

Even as we embark on each day, recognize the newness of it. A new day brings a new opportunity. Rather than think of it as another with the same challenges, begin thinking of ways you can tackle the struggle differently with each new day. Go a little deeper. Be on the lookout for ways that you can see God in your life and around you in new and different ways. That perspective shift will go along way on the journey ahead of you. 

Stay Sunny!

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