Sing to my Tune

The first semester I started college I took a physical education course. I did it as one of my electives and thought it would be an easy class. The first day the professor said that the person who could describe love the best (it would be peer voted) would receive exemption from the final exam and that would be a 100%. I listened intently to everyone's definitions of love and while they were good they didn't seem to fit.

Then came my turn. I stood and said this:

Two people who are in love have moved into a beautiful home next to some railroad tracks. They go on and on throughout the days, weeks, years, living here, life seems normal. They haven't really experienced any trains disturbing them and have thought the track was no longer in use. They are playing a tune with their love....the melody is perfect and they are singing along together. Their favorite song.

One day, out of no where, a large train starts going across the tracks. The home starts to shake and both of them look terrified. They both continue to sing, continue to dance to this tune but not without thinking, "Is the other on tune? Are they singing the right lyrics? Are we still singing together?"

Finally the train has gone completely pass. The house starts shaking and the couple realizes immediately that they are still singing the same exact song and not just that they are on the same exact lyric and their tune is perfect. Despite this rocky moment they are one.

I won. And even though my professor (he was a personal health trainer too) pushed me throughout the entire semester he did what he said and I was not required to take the final exam and received a 100%.

I've been thinking of this analogy a lot lately. How true is it really? It's lovely to think of. To think that when we are in a relationship we are both singing and swaying to the same melody, the same beat, the same song. However, what happens to those who don't even like the same music? What happens to the marriages and the relationships in which the train stops and you realize you were never singing the same song in the first place?

In our society and in our day in age we have forgotten how important it is to realize that while love is beautiful - it's hard. You cannot be everything someone needs. Only Christ can. You cannot change a person when they prefer country music over R&B. It's so important to make sure that the one you are with is going to be OK with singing the same song; and if you are singing a song they don't prefer why not compromise.

Love is beautiful. I'm secretly a die hard romantic. I dream of romance, think of romance, and pray that I get to experience romance on a daily basis. But I also have to be OK with the idea that romance isn't in flowers, or love notes, or sex. Love is a choice. It's an action to be shown.

When that couple was hearing that train go by, feeling the house shake, they had to choose to continue singing. They had to choose to hang on, to allow the time with the noise and the unknown to grow them. Where do you need to grow?