Each partner in a marriage is different. I am different from my husband. We have some things in common and then there are some things on which we differ greatly. One of the things we differ on is what we choose to watch on TV. I love the serious stuff. The drama. The Reality TV. The crime shows. Give me a good Criminal Minds, CSI, or Biggest Loser any night of the week. Matt, on the other hand, drives me crazy!! He only likes to watch comedy. The TV sit-com is his favorite. He will watch show after show on the re-run channel. At any given time of the day you can find a Frazier, How I Met Your Mother, or Two and a Half Men. I say he loves these shows because he's a man and men don't like commitment. Or men don't have long enough attention spans, so he can only take a 30 minute, light-hearted show. Whereas I, being a woman, want a show that makes me FEEL! I want a commitment to characters that I form a relationship with over a whole season..... who then tear my heart out when they leave!!
But, as in all marriages, there must be compromise. So, many a night, unfortunately, I find myself sitting next to Matt watching some 30 minute sit-com and wishing I was watching something else. But the craziest thing happens. Somewhere between the first and second commercial break I find that I am loving it. I am hooked. I am totally enjoying it and wouldn't change the channel if the remote was suddenly ripped out of Matt's clutches and handed to me. And typically, there will come a time when I laugh. I don't mean laugh, I mean LAUGH! Like throw my head back and deep from my stomach LAUGH. And that's when it happens. I look at him... Matt. I know to look because I have seen it before. But, I look at him and he's looking at me. And he's got this grin on his face that tells me he just fell in love with me all over again. He's like that you see. He loves to laugh. And he loves to make me laugh. And he loves me to laugh at him. And he loves to see me laughing. And in that moment, because I choose to share with him something that he loves we grow closer. And I know there's nothing else in the world I'd rather be doing than laughing for him and growing closer to him because of it.
And so it is with God.
Doesn't he just drive you crazy? You have your preferences. You like the things you like. You like to do it your way. You would never willingly chose to do it another way. And yet, there comes a time in your life when you have to compromise. With God. Usually because you have no choice. After all, he's pretty much in control. So, you find yourself doing it a different way. Suddenly you are on a different path, one you never would have chosen for yourself. You're grudgingly along for the ride because you have no choice. Then somewhere along the way, between life event 132 and 133, you find you are enjoying this new path. And soon after that you experience that belly laugh... or the higher-than-you've-ever-been-on high.; or the most-fulfilled-you've-ever-been fulfilled; the happiest-you've-ever-been happy. And at that moment, you know to turn to Him. You know because you've been there before. And when you do you see that He has fallen in love with you all over again. He loved you before. He never stopped loving you. But by sharing in what He loves, doing it His way, you grew closer. And in that moment you realize that there's no way you would switch to that other path, the one you would have chosen for yourself. Because by doing what He loves, you grew closer and are forever changed.
