Riddle: You have eight cubes. Seven of them weigh the same. The eighth one is heavier but you need a set of scales to determine which one is heavier. The cubes are alike in every way except the weight of the eighth one. You are alone in a room and in order to get out, you need to put the heavier cube in a keyhole. If you put the wrong cube in, the room will blow up and blast you to smithereens. All you have is a set of balance scales. The thing is, you can only use the scales two times before it too blows up. How do you get out? This is the puzzle my daughter brought home from school. I thought about it for a minute then forgot it. In a few days, my husband and I entertained two other happy couples. He shared the crazy ice terrorist riddle with the couples. The three men talked about the riddle at length and tried to solve it. We three gals, didn't give a rip and talked about womanly kinds of things like news of our friends and a new restaurant in town. When my daughter told my son of the riddle, he could not get it off of his mind. She told him while driving home from church. We had no idea that he was still trying to solve the puzzle until we had driven for twenty minutes. He suddenly sprang up from the backseat and yelled, "This is going to drive me nuts!" When I thought for sure he'd forgotten about it, he would ask her a question. She'd have to repeat the puzzle to make sure he got all of the details. People crack me up! I've studied the different temperaments people have, and the responses my daughter got from the riddle really drove home the diversity of God's creation. I asked me son as he tried to solve the riddle, "Son, can you imagine anyone just not solving the problem and not really even thinking about it again?" He was shocked at the thought. At this point, he still hadn't solved the riddle and I was taking up valuable thinking time by speaking to him. "No," came the terse reply. I asked, "Can you imagine never knowing the answer to this riddle?" Again the idea was just unfathomable. I was amazed as we pulled into the driveway and he spouted out the correct answer. He and my husband basked in the knowledge that our sin is smart! When my daughter, Kirstie, shook her head and told him that he had indeed solved the riddle, Kyle said, "I feel so good. I feel like I've accomplished something." My husband said, 'It does feel good to solve it." I furrowed my brow and rolled my eyes. They hadn't even DONE anything. All they did was solve a nonsense puzzle about cubes in a keyhole. Everyone knows that there aren't keyholes made like cubes and why would a person be in a room alone with cubes and scales? I mentioned to my family that I could care less about the riddle or if I ever heard the answer. As hard as it was for Kyle to believe that people like me exist…you know, the ones who couldn't solve a riddle if they were trapped in a booby trapped room and their life depended on it.. I couldn't believe their exuberant joy in their intellectual accomplishment. I've never understood the purpose of puzzles of any kind. I have started to get a little understanding of the puzzle master, however. Once, I walked into my father-in-law's home and spotted a 1000 piece puzzle in the living room. The puzzle was completely worked, except there was a little hole where one more piece needed to be interlocked. The one piece was sitting to the side. My father-in-law had gotten up and walked to another room of the house. I stood peering over at the puzzle and said to my mother-in-law, "How about I just stick this piece in here! He left it out!" I grinned really big! She did not laugh. She gave me a look of warning. (She is a puzzle doer and one of those analytical thinkers too.) I said, "It's the only piece I could have done of the puzzle. I need to do it." I didn't dare. You see, he had spent hours over that wacky thing and when he had nearly accomplished the great feat, he took a break. His plan was to return and put the last piece in with flare. He would sit and look at what he had done and take great pride in it. Now, if you're a puzzle-doer, the thought that I might put in the last piece probably horrified you. If you're not a puzzle-doer, then you might have giggled or you may not have even seen the significance in the last puzzle piece at all. While I don't do puzzles, there are some orderly kinds of things that I do. When I put my dishes away, I put them in the cabinet in an orderly fashion. When I teach my kids how to put away the dishes, I always tell them to put them away with excellence. What does that mean? That means to put them away like I want them to be put away. No putting the rim up in the cabinet. No putting a larger bowl on top of a smaller one. No putting the salad forks in with the dinner forks. I mean, there could be a major war in the Piper household if the dishes aren't put away with excellence. (Excellence=my way) I went to my sister-in-law's home and put her dishes away. I was horrified when I opened her cabinets and saw that someone had done an injustice to her and not put her dishes away with excellence. The glasses were rim up so I flipped them and finished putting the dishes away. While I was still working in the kitchen and talking a mile a minute, I heard the sound of clinking. To my grave dismay, Stephanie was flipping the glasses back up the wrong way! She shook her head and said, "Lisa, I don't do mine like you and your mom." I declared with great persuasive force, "But, you're doing it wrong!" She dared to ignore me and kept flipping her glasses RIM UP! Oh the atrocity! No matter what I said or demanded, she stood her ground in her kitchen. I finally loosened up and ignored the glasses that were just calling out to me to be justified. Stephanie laughed at me just like I laughed at those puzzle-doers. Now, after saying all of that, if you are wondering what the answer to the riddle could possibly be…I cannot help you. I don't remember the answer. However, if you are interested in knowing, I could ask my son, but he isn't here right now. What is my point to all of this musing about puzzles and doing things right? Well, I think it is that we are all different. Sometimes we look at others who think, behave and respond differently than us and think they are the weird ones. We can get so caught up that our way is right that we assume others are wrong. What is right anyway? Proverbs says that a man is right in his own eyes. I say rim down…Stephanie says rim up. I say burn the puzzles, others say glue them to a piece of board and hang 'em up. There is only ONE reason for a War, an Argument, a Conflict or a Fight. There must be one element to every situation and that is RIGHTNESS. When one party believes he is right and another is wrong, then motive for disunity has been sown into the relationship. For example, I think my dishes are right…if you don't do them like me, I think you are wrong. There's the conflict. The U.S. thinks that terrorism is wrong and other countries think it is right. Personally, I believe we are right. But how are we to know if we are right? I mean, when it comes to relationships and government and important matters, how do we know we are right if everyone has an opinion of what rightness is? How about I end this blog and just say, "That's the reason God gave us His Word. The Bible is the absolute truth. We can learn from it and when we line up what we think against the Bible, then the Bible is right. You have to have the absolute truth to make decisions and determine what is right and good and true." So, if you think your husband/wife is wrong and you are arguing about the matter, go to the Word. The Word can solve the issues, if you are willing to submit that you are wrong. I'm finishing this blog with a couple of thoughts: #1: There are riddles in the Bible. The Bible does not teach against riddles, even though I'm pretty sure Samson wished he's never participated in the game. #2: I hope you got my point. If you are still angry with me because I did not post the solving of the riddle, the Bible says to forgive. J Message me and I'll see what I can do to get the riddle…I really don't know what it is…I don't care either…but I care about you and if you want the answer, I'll get it for you.