Missing Pieces (1)

There are times in life where we believe we have a grasp of a certain subject or topic, and we come to find out that we only knew a small portion of what was really going on. This is the humbling process of growing up in the faith -- we all experience it, even if it is different for each of us.

I saw a picture the other day of a motorcycle, and thought to myself it was the dumbest thing I had ever seen. Two seats, two tanks, two handlebars; it looked crazy. I asked myself why would anyone build that? It was like two motorcycles got smashed together. Was it so that the rider could choose to sit in front or back? No one riding a motorcycle wants there to be another person controlling the wheel, and the one in back cannot see well enough to steer -- I was confused.

Then, I found out that the guy that built it did it so that his blind brother could ride on the bike with him and feel what it was like (trust me--it cannot be described, only experienced!). I had only a few pieces to the puzzle; my information was lacking. Much of the time when we get upset at something it is because we are missing some of the pieces of the puzzle. Either God Himself is not telling us what else is going on, or we only know a few things about the person who is upsetting us. This is why being judgmental is so heinous -- I presumes that we are all-knowing.

Our perception of things is always limited (precisely because we are not God and therefore do not know everything), but we rarely act like it is so. We see one piece of the puzzle and then act like we can see them all (and the puzzle of reality is more pieces than we can count). I cannot count how many times I have had to tell someone who was upset "you do not know the whole story", but they would not listen. This is why we are called to trust God in the times of trial and confusion: He knows what is going on, we do not.

Going through life with a full acceptance of having only a few "pieces of the puzzle" is humbling, but also liberating. It frees us from the selfish and prideful attitude of, "I know . . . so I'm right!" When pagans act like they know everything, we should not be shocked (after all, they have been brainwashed by the religion of scientism), but as Catholics we should know better. Can we learn from their mistakes?