3 spiritual ways to solve everyday problems

For years, my favorite comic strip was "Calvin and Hobbes." In one strip, Calvin is doing a crossword puzzle as his best friend, Hobbes, watches.

"I'm doing a crossword puzzle. Number three across says 'bird.' I've got it! Yellow-bellied sapsucker!" Calvin said.

"But there are only five boxes," Hobbes said.

"I know. These idiots make you write real small," Calvin said.

My wife is a cruciverbalist. It sounds scary, doesn't it? That is just a fancy word that means she is one who enjoys doing crossword puzzles. She does one each day as she exercises her brain and expands her vocabulary.

Some puzzles are more challenging than others. The clues and answers are quite obscure. When this happens, what does one do? Unlike Calvin, you don't simply make up an answer and force it to fit. That will throw off answers to many other clues.

Instead, you turn to the appropriate tool to find the correct answer that fits the puzzle — you open a crossword puzzle dictionary, search for the appropriate response, solve the clue and move on.

What do you do when life throws difficult circumstances your way? What do you do when answers don't seem to be forthcoming?

Do you try to follow your own intuition by forcing a solution that doesn't really fit?

Let me offer you three suggestions that will serve as appropriate tools to help you find the proper solution to your puzzlement:

•Pray. Ask God for guidance to work through the situation, to give you comfort and peace so your heart and mind can work calmly and clearly.

•Read the scriptures. The Bible carries many solutions to life's puzzlements. The scriptures will speak to your mind and heart when you read slowly, carefully and reflectively.

•Talk with a trusted friend. Don't seek someone who will tell you what you want to hear. Seek someone who will tell you what you need to hear. Listen for God's voice speaking through that person.

Don't force your own solutions, because very often they will throw off other areas of your life. When you trust God, his written word, his words spoken through a friend, you will find the appropriate answer.

And the solution will give you life.

The Rev. Mark Broadhead is pastor at Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3 spiritual ways to solve everyday problems