I recently began work on a challenge after I and the others in a writing group were assigned the following words: peanut, exhaustion, pelted, and pensive and instructed to incorporate them into a final product that makes sense. In other words, here's a chance to improve word integration and interpretation skills.
"Should be fun," I told myself, "Maybe I'll try making them into a poem." Upon further thought I realized that poetry isn't my strong suit and even if it was, patient, albeit exhausted, heroes and heroines being pelted with gobs of peanut butter wouldn't give me many points.
Though I've often been encouraged to try my hand at writing fiction, I've never ventured into that arena. Maybe this would be my big step to fame. I could be very imaginative, I reasoned. For instance, peanuts really are legumes so I could cast my protagonist as Mr. P Nutte, CEO of an investment company specializing in buying and selling groundnuts. I'd dress him up in furs - that way he'd be pelted - and let him tell us what goes on behind the scenes when an exhausted stock broker runs out of patience with clients who refuse to take his advice.
"Nah," I decide, "that's dumb."
I still haven't settled on a final plot or genre but it's been good to get the creative juices flowing. It's also good to be reminded that life rarely hands us a neatly packaged and coordinated existence. In contrast, we often find ourselves in situations we would not have chosen and on paths we would rather not tread. Like those seemingly unrelated words, God can put them together and bless us in a way we couldn't have imagined.
"In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence." Proverbs 14:26
When life doesn't make sense, let Him put the pieces together.
