All The Broken Pieces

I know very little about computers. 

I wouldn't say I'm quite at the "turn-it-off-and-then-on-again" end of the scale (you know, the sort who resorts to a good old reboot whenever there's any kind of problem), but I am not far off.

I have, however, over my time noticed one or two things that I wish were applicable to life.  For example, how many times have you had "Ctrl+z" moments?  Moments where you wish with everything in you that it was physically possible to "undo" whatever you have just said or done. 

I experience them rather frequently.

Another thing I have picked up on my technological travels is "Defragmenting" ("Defragging" to those in the know).  I find this process of sifting and sorting, colour-coding and categorising rather satisfying to watch.  What starts off as a muddled mess of different files and scrappy bits of data is soon collected and regrouped. 

Order is restored.

I sometimes wish that I could "Defrag" my head and my heart too - pick out all of my thoughts and feelings and experiences and sift through them and group them together to make some sort of sense of it all.  Then I could see what I really have inside of me and what I want to keep and what I want to send to the "Recycling Bin."

Sometimes I feel as though I have begun this process, but have got stuck half-way through: I have got all of the pieces out to start sorting through them, but haven't completed the task.  I have felt overwhelmed, or have run out of time, or have felt like I will never finish.

But I am learning that I probably never will finish the process.  Not because I have accumulated so many "files" and there is too much to sort through, but because, as I sort and sift through the different pieces of "data", new ideas and experiences and feelings are being added all the time.  And they will continue to be added every day for the rest of my life.

Life is an ongoing process of sifting and sorting and saving and filtering and filing and formatting and recycling and reusing and developing and discarding and starting the process all over again ...

But I don't have to do it by myself.

"God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him."

[Psalm 18:20, MSG]

"And that's the beauty of this grace

It can put the pieces back in place

And shine reflections of forgiveness

In a million different ways."

[Matthew West: All the Broken Pieces]