I am feeling disproprotionately pleased with myself now I've completed my jigsaw.  Many, many hours of patient searching sorting, inserting, removing, rotating, delight and frsutration, and  now I have the complete image of this amazing painting... well until I smash it up again so that I can get my kitchen table back!

I discovered a love of jigsaws in the early days after my surgery four years ago, when I used them to try to regain my concentration... four years on it is still not great, and now there is is scientific research to support that assertion!  I blogged about it here and here and again here and here.

I have enjoyed working may way through this jigsaw - even the slog of the final 100 pieces, requiring utter focus and concentration, and a little dull to be honest.  And the whole process gave me plenty of pause for thought as I reflect on ministry in general and my endeavours in particular!

Whilst I'm less enthusiastic about finding tidy edges to what we might term ministry, it certainly needs to be bounded for practical reasons if nothing else.  Identifying and defining those bounds is not always easy, and sometimes the edges do change, or bits have to be rearranged because they don't quite fit.

There are aspects of ministry that are easy, energising and rewarding, just as there are aspects of a jigsaw that can be quickly identified and put together to reveal part of the image.

There are times when, for whatever reason, and they are many and varied, a piece gets put in upside down or in the the wrong place... just as in ministry sometimes things don't fit or don't work or I just plain old fashioned get them wrong.

And sometimes it is all just a long, necessary slog of piecing together sky or sea, or in this case oxen.  And sometimes ministry can be like that too - lots of effort and little evidence of achievement.

Finally the last piece is in place... well never in ministry, but there are those moments of euphoria when it seems as if it all comes together, at least for a while.

Not a perfect metaphor, for sure, but one that has helped me reflect a little, and I think verall that's good.

And above all, some relaxation as I've plodded my way through the jigsaw... now I really do have to get the housework done!!