Faith As Sudoku

Every single morning I do the sudoku in our newspaper.

I know! Who is this woman, the one would do the crossword, and sometimes the Jumble, but never the sudoku because that was too haaaaard! and it was nuuuuumbers! and waaaaaah! why did everyone love this so much?

It was about a year ago, though, that I realized if all the people in my life loved sudoku this much I must be missing something, so I'd try doing it. The first time I did it it was still hard, and I didn't like it much. In fact, the second and third and fortieth time it was hard and I didn't like it so much. But then something clicked. I got the logic, I got that if these two numbers are here in the puzzle, they couldn't be used there. 

This morning as I sat staring at the numbers, within a dozen squares of having the boxes filled, I realized that this little puzzle is a lot like my faith life.

I could go quite a ways on logic: This box could only be five or seven, and that box could only be five or seven, so the four has to go somewhere else.

But at a certain point all the logical boxes are filled in. This empty spot could be a two or a six or a seven,with no absolute certain way to decide. I have to close my eyes and fill in that box, then do the rest of the puzzle based on that decision. It won't be until the puzzle is finished that I will know if my choice for that square is right or wrong. That choice, though, affects every remaining square in the puzzle.

A lot of the choices I make in my faith life are based on logic. It is logical that all humans are called to be compassionate toward others, that we have purpose in life, that we are meant to care for those who have less than we do, that we should love. You'll find those logical choices in most faith choices.

But that certain point, when we have filled in these logical boxes, we must choose the one path to believe, and write that name in the pivotal box that will determine the rest of our eternity. Like a sudoku, we can't complete our puzzle without making a choice, a choice that cannot be "maybe."

I chose Jesus, and writing His name in my soul completed the puzzle.