Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SHIFT (05/27/21)
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TITLE: Melody’s Metamorphose | Previous Challenge Entry
By Linda Lawrence
06/02/21 -
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Ten years later she met Darren on a group date. Instantly attracted to each other, everyone and everything else seemed to fade into the background while they talked, keenly aware of delightful rapport and synergy. They became best friends, dated off and on for three years, always comfortable with each other.
But a shift toward Melody’s sense of calling was stirred when Paul, a youth pastor, urged her to attend numerous youth activities. In hindsight, she realized Paul was vetting her to see how well she would fit into ministry life! She always believed she would marry someone in ministry—and that wasn’t Darren’s calling. So when Paul asked her to marry him, she submitted with a quiet, “Yes!”
Melody’s co-worker, Dolores, was maid of honor for the wedding--and the one who caught her bridal bouquet! Six months after the wedding, Dolores and Darren had fallen in love—and married!
Meanwhile, Melody was sadly discovering she had married a deeply broken man, a man married to the church and his own needs—acquiring a wife to complete his image. Melody felt trapped, but believed in keeping her vows and hoped God would metamorphosize their marriage—that they would be transformed for the glory of God. While she waited, she served—her Lord, her husband, her children, the church. Her desire for a loving intimate connection with her husband never materialized. Instead she experienced a dark side that kept them forever disconnected. Her longing was assuaged when Melody turned to Jesus with her pain and loneliness. He faithfully responded, strengthening and encouraging her year after year with growing intimacy with Himself.
Melody occasionally thought fondly of Darren and Dolores and prayed their marriage brought them satisfaction and joy.
Not having heard from her friends for 50 years, Melody and Paul were surprised to receive a Christmas card from them, in which Darren gave a thumbnail sketch of their lives together—9000 miles away. Melody responded with a generic synopsis of their lives.
A month later, they received a note from grief-stricken Darren, attached to a memorial program from Dolores’ service after her sudden death. He sent a Christmas card again the next year, and the next, still mourning the loss of his soulmate.
Melody was awakened one morning by the sound of a thud as Paul hit the floor. Although he was 82 and had a failing heart, his sudden death was still a shock to Melody and her family.
After the funeral Melody mailed a copy of Paul’s memorial program to all the friends on their Christmas list—including Darren. He immediately e-mailed Melody, deeply sympathetic, identifying with her loss and wanting to share what helped him deal with his grief. At some point, Melody felt compelled to let him know that although their spouses both died very suddenly, the parallel ended there. Melody’s grief had ebbed and flowed for years, running its course, dying when Paul died.
A month later, Darren emailed again asking Melody if he could call her. The call turned into a four-hour conversation. The calls continued. First, every couple of days and then daily. A friend of Melody’s offered to host a reunion, giving them an opportunity to catch up on fifty years.
Face to face, it seemed to them as though God had pushed a pause button many years before, and was now releasing it, saying, “Delight in this unexpected gift I planned for you . . . for as long as you both shall live.”
Melody had faithfully carried out her God-given assignment. But face to face with her long-lost friend, a man strong in all the ways Paul had been weak, Melody felt her 50-year-dormant love stirring within her once again. However, fear of what her family and friends would think kept her longings and imagination in check—almost.
Darren’s restrained but gentle reasoning with her, his confidence and assurance that they were meant to be together, and his family’s acceptance that his love for Melody took nothing from his love for Dolores, allowed for a gradual shift from fear to hope, from hope to joy, from joy to glorying in the gift God was giving them.
Soon—very soon—Melody and Darren will both eagerly be saying, “I do!”
Based on an eye-witnessed true story.
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