Imagine your life like a beautiful grand piano. It’s absolutely flawless and breath-taking to look at. It’s reflective, dark surface practically glows in the dark like a moon-lit pond on a summer night. When people look at this grand piano, they can only assume the most beautiful of sounds could possibly ever be heard from it. And it’s true, with one touch of a single key it’s like hearing a note from a heavenly choir.
But then pain enters in and through one way or another, one of the keys becomes out of tune. The song that was supposed to be heard on your piano can not be fully enjoyed because of the out of tune key. The song that the Master created just for you can not be played. Certainly, other songs can be attempted to be played without that note, but they’re not YOUR song, they’re somebody else’s song. That key that is out of tune must be avoided at all cost, making the one song that was created just for you unplayable.
You can avoid playing your song, but something will always be missing. At times when someone hits that sour note, it makes you angry. Pretty soon you start to make that particular part of the piano off-limits. Nobody can touch it. More pain enters in and more keys become out-of-tune. Eventually you make the entire piano off-limits because you can’t stand to hear the sour notes. Now nobody can hear the song of your life. And there the grand piano sits, looking pretty, but collecting dust because the one song that was meant to be played is never heard.
We all have sour notes of pain in our lives that make us unhappy to hear. It makes us angry when people around us hit those “sour notes,” that were supposed to be off-limits. We build more offenses and shut off people around us until our very purpose is all but invisible to us. The sweet melody that our lives are meant to bring to others is never heard.
Author Anne Day 