Now I know you've had the same
experience as I have. You're driving alone in your car, an
MC Hammer
song comes on the radio, what do you do?
You turn it up and sing along, of
course!
This happened the other day and it
got me thinking about his journey from humble beginnings, to fame, then
to bankruptcy. After doing a bit of investigating into his story,
Hammer's story can actually teach us a lot about marriage and life. As
his career rose and his fame grew, a backlash started regarding the
repetitive nature of his lyrics and his apparent over-reliance on
sampling other artist's hooks as his own.
And probably most notably (other
than Hammer pants), MC Hammer's mismanagement of his money placed him
among celebrity lore.
So what can us married folk learn
from his journey?
First, how many times have you
experienced some good things in marriage only for them to turn
repetitive and monotonous? It is so easy for life to become routine.
This is largely due to the comfort zone world we each like to live
within. Human nature seems to make us creatures of habit. Even if these
habits are "bad." Most of us will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.
Because of an unwillingness for discomfort, routine sets in. To combat
this, try
spicing
things up.
Speak
up. Break out of the routine and try something new.
Second, how often do
other
people's marriages look better than our own? Granted there are
actually people that are in the midst of better marriages than our own,
but this is often the exception rather than the norm. Many times people
will mimic what they perceive others are doing, or not doing, in order
to improve their own situation. The problem with this; usually what is
imitated is not solid enough to be duplicated because it was created
from an impersonation itself.
To overcome this, create your own
marriage. What
dreams
do you have for your life? For your
marriage?
For your children?
And third, Hammer's mismanagement of
his fortune is much like what we do, although not necessarily with
money. We
mismanage
the good things we've created and acquired between one another. We
often get anxious when we experience too much of a good thing. We focus
too much on "waiting for the other shoe to drop."
So oddly enough, when things are
going really well between our spouse and us, we mess it up. We sabotage
our own pleasure, and theirs. Could it be that we don't know how to
handle blessings in life? This may be related to the idea that I'd
rather have unhappiness over uncertainty. We believe that our
relationship is like the speedometer on a car. It can only travel so
fast. Go so far. Like there is a ceiling to what we can handle.
What if a marriage could be more?
What if it could travel beyond what we ever thought possible?
I believe marriages can be more.
There is no ceiling to the potential of any relationship. And this
answer is found largely in
how
we view what goes on between us. When we see things differently, we
get the chance to get more out of what we currently have.
