The Sound Before the Song

The Sound Before the Song



Often, we fall in love with the harmony but ignore the dissonance that taught it how to blend.

This season of my life feels a lot like April; muddy, confusing, and unfinished. As a graduating senior, I thought I would feel more certain about what my future looks like. I thought I would have a clear plan and a clean path. Something that made perfect sense. Instead, I find myself in between; between options, between versions of my life, between what feels easy and what feels right.



There’s a part of me that wants the simple answer, the path that looks the most put-together from the outside. But I’m learning that what God has for me isn’t always found in the easiest choice. Even now, I’m having to make a real decision between my early decision commitment to Spelman and an amazing opportunity at Howard. While I am grateful for both paths, I’ve come to 

the realization that my future might have to change in ways I didn’t plan for.

 

In choir, a song doesn’t start as a harmony. It starts as separate voices. These voices are often uncertain, sometimes off-key, and still learning where they belong. There are moments where it doesn’t sound beautiful yet, where the notes clash instead of connect. And still, we keep going. We rehearse. We adjust. We listen. Because somewhere in that process, the noise begins to turn into music.

 I’m learning that life works the same way. The uncomfortable parts, the missed notes, the decisions that don’t come easily, they’re not signs that we’re failing. They’re signs that we are still in the process of becoming greater. Growth doesn’t always sound good at first but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. 

Some of the most beautiful songs start off as scattered notes. So if your life feels out of tune right now, don’t quit the song. Stay through the rehearsal. Give yourself some grace to learn your part, to find your rhythm, to grow into the harmony that you are meant to be. 


There’s a reminder in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance… He hath made every thing beautiful in his time; also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (The Holy Bible, KJV). 

I know that this is a very long reminder but I do hope you take from it what I have. There is a time for everything, a reason with every season, and though this season might not feel like it will ever end, the plans that God has for you are much greater. Another honorable mention would be James 1:2:4, it teaches us that even our challenges are building perseverance within us, teaching us in ways we can’t always see. 
So maybe this season isn’t meant to look perfect. Maybe it’s meant to prepare you. My life is still in rehearsal, and the final song will be beautiful. Even the unfinished parts of me have purpose.