Life Is Like…

For­est Gump said, “life is like a box of choco­lates — you never know what you are going to get.” Life is a lit­tle like that I sup­pose. Life is like a lot of other things too. Like any great mys­tery, it can­not be described except by analo­gies, metaphors, para­bles, sto­ries, and all of the ways you see it out of the cor­ner of your eye. Straight on you will miss it.

To me, life is like a game of chess: the pos­si­ble moves are many; it requires some strat­egy; never under­es­ti­mate the task; it isn’t how hard you play but how smart you play; it pays to be an oppor­tunist; you have to be patient; the win­ning move will come as a sur­prise; you learn more by los­ing than by win­ning. Choices have con­se­quences, and you can never fully pre­dict the com­plex game of life. That is what makes it so much fun.

I like to look at life like a jig­saw puz­zle: there is some grand pic­ture form­ing from much smaller pieces; ulti­mately there is order; each piece has its place; some­times you see the solu­tion even before you see the prob­lem; suc­cess means hav­ing to exper­i­ment and be dis­ap­pointed; look for minor themes and com­mon ele­ments that are often ignored but usu­ally become major solu­tions; exer­cise your intu­ition — the more of these you do the bet­ter you get at them. Each day is a piece of the grand puzzle.

Jesus com­pared qual­ity liv­ing to acci­den­tal dis­cov­er­ies of wealth, being pre­pared for dis­as­ters, hav­ing an unex­pected seat of honor at a ban­quet, los­ing your job — but being oppor­tunis­tic about it, seeds sown every­where, reap­ing where you have not sown (shrewd liv­ing), and reign­ing by serv­ing. He had many oth­ers as well, but look­ing at his life in gen­eral tells you that life is filled with com­plex­i­ties that require a qual­ity faith and some spir­i­tual wit.

Life is like a lot of lesser things, and life has yet to be defined fully. You will never com­pletely fig­ure it out. Take it seri­ously enough to have some fun with it. You are not get­ting out of this one alive, so plan for the next one. Have some style. Every­thing you do and how you see what hap­pens points that that one smil­ing Being of eter­nal riddles.