What Is It?

There is so much unrest, and uncertainty in our land right now. There are times when one wonders if the constant struggle to cope from day to day is really going to accomplish anything. Just when we think that, maybe, there is hope, something else comes along, and knocks the breath right out of us.

Even so, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get on with the business of living, of striving for the dream in all of our hearts, even though life is complicated, and reality is harsh.

But what is it that makes us go on dreaming, even in the stark daylight of reality?

Why does our heart tell us to keep going in the face of every opposition?

What is the force that drives us ever onward toward a goal that seems unobtainable?

What gives us the courage to carry on, even when it seems that we have gone the last mile?

What is the never ending force that travels through our being--the force that is our being?

Why do we struggle against it?

Why the resistance against the thing that is trying to work for our good?

We all must have a dream. A destiny to fulfill. A pattern that can be formed in it's entirety, by only specific pieces of life, much in the same way that a picture is formed only by each specific piece of a jigsaw puzzle. A piece which has been cut to perfection, and will only fit into that one particular part of the puzzle--its shape and size and color, made to be fitted into no other part--the picture, which without it, is incomplete.

If a piece is forced into a part of the puzzle, for which it was not made, the picture is misshapen and imperfect.

And such is life.

Our lives are like a jigsaw puzzle. We keep searching until we have found the piece of the puzzle which fits perfectly into the picture. Much searching, much trying, much forcing of pieces--trying to make a whole of perfection--our perfect picture. They have to be looked for carefully, and sometimes they are hard to find, yet, we keep searching.

Sometimes, the piece looks exactly as if it will fit, but it doesn't, and we try to force it into place. because it looks like it belongs there. Finally, after much effort we put that piece aside, and go on searching for the one that fits.

The important thing is that although we may search long and hard through the pieces that don't fit, eventually we find the ones which do, and we have that for which we have been striving.

Just as a puzzle is challenging at times, discouraging at others, but ultimately fulfilling when it all comes together, beautifully, as a result of our efforts--such is the putting together of each of our lives, and the pursuit of our dreams.

It's the challenges, the discouragements, the searching and the trying, and the determination to see the fulfillment of our endeavors culminate into the perfect picture.

But what is it really that drives us toward the ultimate dream, in spite of all of the adversity all around us?

It's faith, and hope.

In spite of those whom would turn our lives upside-down, by changing what we have always known, by trying to take away our freedoms, by causing chaos, and almost putting asunder all the pieces of the puzzle that we have worked so hard to fit together--it is faith in Someone bigger than we are, and hope in the knowledge that Good will always triumph over Evil in the grand scheme of things.

That's what it is.