CROSSWORD PUZZLES

My crossword puzzle has been teaching me a lesson, well actually a number of lessons.  I've always liked puzzles, any type of puzzle.  As a kid I enjoyed those complex wooden puzzles that required you to manipulate the string and blocks and discover the secret of removing the ring without untying the knot.

My enjoyment for puzzles continues.  I love to work a good crossword puzzle.  Even if I don't get to read the papers, I save the puzzles so I can do them later. I like thinking them through, linking the clues, and filling in the blanks.  I like solving them. While I do my puzzles in ink, I'm not expert enough to never have to do a write over or a scratch out.  But given time, patience, and diligence, I've learned that I can solve most crossword puzzles. That's the lesson.  I hope you caught it.  Leaders know that sometimes leadership feels more like a puzzle than a calling. -          A system is failing.  How do you fix it? -          A replacement on a team is needed.  How do we recruit the best qualified person? -          New direction is needed.  How do we find it? Just like solving the crossword puzzle, with patience and diligence, we apply ourselves to the situation.  As we do, more and more blanks are filled in until we reach the point where the puzzle (oops challenge) is solved. Perplexed today?  Faced with a problem, a challenge, a puzzle?  Apply yourself.  Be diligent and patient.  The solution lies ahead. the man in the window Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Gal 6:9.     The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

-- To follow Jesus is to learn to move with God.

THE TRUTH ABOUT CROSSWORD PUZZLES

I enjoy working crossword puzzles.  And lately God has been speaking to me about crossword puzzles.  No really.  Here let me help you understand it.     Try this one.   Across    1.        Some embroidery  (6 Letters)   Down 1.       Studies all night (5 letters) 2.       Explain away (5 letters) 3.       Cheer up (5 letters) 4.       Sage (7 letters) 5.       Times of preparation (4 letters) 6.       Was ahead (3 letters)   1    2    3    4    5    6 __  __  __  __  __  __ __  __  __  __  __  __ __  __  __  __  __  __ __  __  __  __  __  __  __  __  __                  __                 __     Figure it out yet?  Puzzled by it?   Here is the solution.         C  R  E W E  L R  E  L   I  V  E A  B  A  S  E  D M U  T  E  S S  T  E  M              A              N   That's the lesson the Father was speaking to me this morning in my devotional time as I puzzled over some of the challenges that lay before us. Half in prayer, half in meditation, my eyes fell on the crossword puzzle in the paper and I was reminded. Puzzles have solutions.  They may take time and effort, trial and error, but puzzles have solutions.  Some are very difficult, but puzzles have solutions.  I began to think what might happen if I viewed every problem as being a puzzle, and remembered that every puzzle has a solution. In the midst of puzzling times, this leader was encouraged to keep working at the challenges because all puzzles have a solution.   The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.