Square Peg/Round Hole

The little girl in the picture seems to be doing better than my husband.

One day found him struggling to get the USB connector inserted into the port on his phone. It just refused to go in! Since he is a kind of invincible guy, he was not about to let a lowly phone cable best him. Do or die! That connector would go in--or else!

With a Herculean effort he was finally able to force the connector into his phone! Success at last! Then he had to waltz over to the cell phone doc. Turns out the silly thing wasn't going in because it was not positioned correctly. Square peg/round hole. His success came at the cost of a ruined port that had to be replaced.

While I'm glad the phone saga happened to Dennis and not me so that I could be aware of the dangers of forcing a cable into my phone, I'm afraid the square peg/round hole axiom has infiltrated other areas of my life. For example, there was a time many moons ago when a fellow laborer in the ministry called me to task.

"Janine," she scolded in a gentle manner, "you rob yourself of blessings because you don't just say 'yes' to things. You belabor the ins and outs to such a degree that you end up missing out on a lot of blessings from the Lord." These words haunted me for over a decade. Their translation? "Square peg! Square peg! You don't fit in everyone else's round hole!"

There was truth in my friend's words. I cannot say "yes" to an outing or an invitation without thinking on all the ramifications. Do I have anything else going on that day? Can I get a baby sitter in time for my boys? Do I even have the money for a baby sitter? Will my husband be okay with this activity? Only after lengthy thought processes do I arrive at my answer. So maybe my friend was right. I rob myself of blessings from the Lord because I think too much about things. My "abnormally" lengthy thought processes must label me defective.

But then ... a few years down the road an in-service I had to attend opened up the world of left and right brain proclivities to me. I learned, in short, that every person has right and left brain markers. A person with more right brain markers tends to be creative, spontaneous, and emotional. While that person might be disorganized and unpredictable, their people skills make them shine.

I have known some extreme right-brainers who learned to compensate for what would otherwise be debilitating characteristics in order to perform outstandingly in the world (think of the need for punctuality and meeting goals in time sensitive work). For example, while their natural tendencies would be to scatter their clothes to the four winds in their home causing them to rush like crazy people in the morning in order to dress respectably and get to work on time, they discipline themselves to set out their clothes for the next day the night before, thus eliminating the time-consuming mad hunt that would otherwise ensue come morning.

The left brainers, on the other hand, favor being verbal, analytical and orderly. My math guy husband is definitely left brain. He absolutely lives, breathes, and thinks in numbers.

The test we were given at the in-service showed me to be a 50-50. While in some areas I am creative, the brain I have pushes me to organize things. I cried happy tears at that in-service. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). I do not need to think things through because I am defective! It is because I have the brain given to me, ordained for me, by God! Those lengthy thought processes and organizational skills are what helped me lead a cadre of fifty Sunday School teachers in Mexico, develop and extrapolate curriculum in Spanish, organize my classrooms and curriculum in the States. My "defectiveness" was a God-given asset!

My well-meaning friend, who had thought to jolt me into spontaneity, instead ended up laying a suffocating weight of "awareness" of defectiveness on me. But she had been wrong! I am not defective! I have right and left brain characteristics! That is how God made my brain. I am not a square peg in a round hole! I am me, the person God made and created, and my quirky need to think things through is not a liability but an asset! "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

Do not look at someone else and compare yourself to them or your success to theirs! That is a slippery slope that will leave you floundering in the Sea of Unworthiness I wallowed in for so many years. (See 2 Corinthians 10:12.) God made you to be you. There is no one else who can fill the void you would leave if you were not exactly who you are, working and living where you find yourself at this precise moment in time and space.

Are you musically inclined? Worship the Lord with your talent! Are you gifted with great skill in cooking? Share your talent by hosting some of God's people who need fellowship or helping at church food functions! Are you extremely organized? Offer to help needy older people at church or to organize clutter there! What are you inclined towards? What is the talent God has gifted you with? Your inclinations are not liabilities--they are the gift of God to further His Kingdom on earth! You are right where He wants you, doing what He wants. You might not be feeding five thousand, but believe you me, your hungry family is mighty grateful for your cooking skills! The "greatness" of your work, the arena in which you ply the gift God gave you, might not be multi-national, but when you faithfully do what He has called you to do, one day you will hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matthew 25:23).

You are NOT a square peg in a round hole. You are the perfect peg for the perfect place God has for you!

"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well" (Psalm 139:14).