Slowly for some, and suddenly for others, the puzzle of life begins to take shape and a beautiful picture of meaningful belief emerges. All the pieces fit together.  When the pieces of life don’t fit together, our beliefs don’t fit together.  Frustration results and life begins to disintegrate. Depression and (for key figures in the annals of history) the total loss of meaning to life has ended in suicide. When the puzzle does not fit, then what is left of life? Life makes no beautiful picture.  It is incomplete. I have seen those who are deeply depressed seek to find some answer, some belief that makes sense in a world that is not making sense.

Belief (Faith) Guides Us to Where the Pieces Fit Together

Let science be an example of what is needed. A scientist begins to puzzle and wrestle with the mysteries of our universe. How does he proceed to solve the enigma? With a growing faith as he struggles to find answers to the mystery of how things work in our universe. Without a belief that something might be the piece that fits in the puzzle, he would not continue his search for the missing piece. He works on a belief, a faith, that soon he will find the right piece.

The puzzle of life is solved with faith, not doubt or criticism or giving up on the search. Faith (a belief) is the driving force to understanding what is best for life. A belief is also always the essential step to discovery. As Michael Guillen (a scientist) has titled his book, Believing Is Seeing. In it, he illustrates the point repeatedly that every discovery of science exists because someone had faith — a belief.

The Piece that Makes All the Pieces Fit

Life is the greatest puzzle of all that we must put together for ourselves. We can see the sad reality of our world and its division, hate, wars, and killing for power. The only piece that I have discovered that will solve the search for an answer is a saving love — not hate, not criticism, not the human craving for power; but pure love.

Tolerance Will Not Work

We have seen the attempt to make a lesser expression of kindness, namely tolerance, fit the puzzle of life.  But it does not fit. Love is so much more than just being tolerant. Love is doing to others what we would want them to do to us. Nothing less than this is a viable candidate for a wonderful life. The tolerance we see being taught to our young people is a tolerance of all people and their beliefs, which turns out to be all people except those that have beliefs different from our own. With the right belief we can solve all the human enmities that are making the world a decidedly more horrible place to live. Think only of the current wars to be convinced.

Love Makes the Pieces Fit

I just read of a debate between a former Atheist leader, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Richard Dawson, the renowned Atheist, in which Ali, speaking of her beliefs, said that God had turned her around. She continued on to say it is his message of love that she had not found in Islam or Atheism but in the teachings of Christ, the teachings of love, that make sense and offer redemption and renewal to the world. I agree, for I can’t see anything more revolutionary or urgently needed today.  Can you?

Check Your Beliefs

Let’s begin by checking our beliefs. The best check for a belief is by asking where it will ultimately lead us. If I base my life on this or that belief, will it be something I can live with peacefully and happily? Will it make for the best life I can imagine?  This is an essential method to check the validity and livability of our beliefs.

Then, let’s always ask ourselves what is the end result of my beliefs?  Will they make for a better world and will it be something that will make my life worth living? It’s the end result that will vividly show us whether our beliefs are the right piece for the puzzle of life. The answer may mean we will have to make radical changes.  But the missing piece that makes a beautiful picture out of life’s puzzle is the one that fits. Where can it be found? Each of us must make that decision. And that decision may change our lives and many things in them.