Beauty

If I have but one goal in this life [apart from knowing God and leading others to know Him…although when I say “apart,” I don’t actually mean APART, for I believe these two things are very much intertwined, and are often one and the same], it is to pursue beauty…to seek it out where it has been lost, to restore it where it has been tainted, to reconcile it where it has been morphed beyond recognition, to create it where it does not exist…to revel in it with such joy and such passion that every on-looker becomes ignited with inspiration and cannot help but accept the invitation to join in doing the same.

“Beauty” is a verb (I don’t care what the dictionary says!)…it is an action…it is meant to be experienced…No, it is meant to be an EXPERIENCE (okay, then maybe it is a noun, after all)!...a multisensory experience! I believe that God wants us to INTERACT with His world!...Why else would He have made us with five senses???...not one, not two, but FIVE! (Okay, actually there’s seven, but I’ll do my best to set aside my occupational therapy education for just a second and stick with the ones everybody knows.) [Even now, as I write this, I am blissfully soaking up the multisensory beauty in my environment…the relaxing music, the gentle lighting, the feel of the fan blowing air on my face and through my hair, the smell and taste of cinnamon and cloves in my rich, dark, foreign, French-pressed coffee.]

When you notice beauty, recognize beauty, appreciate beauty, breathe in beauty, exude beauty, you are overcome with a flood of joy and peace that resonates deeply within your spirit, confirming that you are walking in your identity as an image-bearer of the CREATOR God…You know that this is what you were made for!

But just in case it’s not enough for you to simply look around at creation and just KNOW in the depth of your being that you’re supposed to be active in it, God makes it pretty clear in His Word. And you don’t have to read too far, because already in the very first chapter of the Bible God reveals the following three things:

1) He is THEE Creator of beauty.
2) He has made us in His image and likeness…enabling us to reflect His beauty and creativity.
3) Not only are we equipped to do this, we are CALLED to, and by “called,” I mean COMMANDED.

God’s first word of instruction to man is “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) SUBDUE it…which means to conquer and bring into subjection, to overpower by superior force, to overcome, to bring under control, and render submissive.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how this direction was given prior to the fall? How much more, in a post-fall, broken, sin-filled world, does this planet need to be restored to order…conquered by love, overpowered by the superior force of reconciliation, overcome by beauty!?!?!

And how then can we [as New Testament believers who know that this HAS been made possible through the death and resurrection of Christ, and who HAVE been filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered with all authority to carry out this mission of bringing heaven to earth] ignore such a calling???

Why is it that so often when we look at the world all we see is pollution and poverty, disease and disaster, abuse, neglect, injustice, and war? We have this mentality that it’s too big, it’s beyond us, and if we can’t fix it all, we can’t fix any of it. We give up. We call it “hopeless” and drown in man-made lake of discouragement and despair. Or we completely ignore it…we forget our identity, we forget our calling, we forget the importance of bringing forth beauty!

WHY DO WE ACT DEFEATED WHEN THE BATTLE HAS ALREADY BEEN WON?

WE ARE NOT CALLED TO BE A PEOPLE OF IGNORANCE AND APATHY!

WE ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF THE BEAUTIFUL CREATOR GOD! THE SAME POWER THAT CONQUERED DEATH LIVES IN US! THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT AND THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT ARE OURS TO REVEL IN AND SHARE WITH A DESPERATE WORLD!

This shouldn’t feel like a burden!...It should be a joy! It’s a gift!...We GET to reflect creativity and beauty!...We GET to partner with God in bringing heaven to earth!

Awesome! So, what does this [living in a constant state of beauty] look like?...Let’s make it practical…

...Get up early and watch a sunrise…smell the morning breeze…don’t just eat because you’re hungry but admire the colors, take pleasure in the textures, and savor the flavors of your food (everything is art!)…listen to a song (without doing anything else at the same time…just listen)…then listen to the sound of silence, total silence…hold a baby, wave at the neighbor girl, smile at a stranger…wash a dish, pull a weed, pick up a piece of trash…feel the wind, soak up the sun, breathe in fresh air…work hard…sing loudly…sing in a whisper…let someone else go first at the grocery store check-out…serve a co-worker…send a letter of encouragement…forgive…pray blessing over someone who hurt you…have a conversation with someone wiser than you (and by have a conversation, I mean listen)…delight in a gift received…be joyful in answered prayer…share a testimony…dance in the rain, dance in the street, dance in church…just dance!...give something away…give of yourself…love people…dive into a perfectly still lake…sit by a perfectly still lake…slow down…take in the details…cherish the moment…plant a flower, pick a flower, or simply NOTICE a flower that someone else planted or picked!

Make a cupcake. Eat a cupcake. Share a cupcake.
Bring Forth Beauty. Celebrate and Enjoy Beauty. Spread Joy by Sharing Beauty.

This may sound a little crazy…talking about finding beauty in cupcakes, when we live in a world in which beauty is continuously attacked on a grand scale in violent ways all over the world daily.

In suggesting these practical applications, I may sound at worst: pathetically ignorant and perhaps even satirical (it’s a joke, right?), and at best: like the adorably naïve cartoon character, Katie, from a loveable children’s movie, who said, “In my world, everyone’s a pony, and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”

But I’m not blind to the devastating images on the news. I’m not deaf to the blatant lies about beauty blaring from the media. My heart BREAKS for every child who’s been emotionally or physically abused, neglected, abandoned, or orphaned. My heart BREAKS for every teenage girl who hates her body and spirals through endless self-destruction in attempt to figure out who she’s supposed to be. My heart BREAKS for every woman who’s been talked down to, deprived of education and other rights, beaten, raped, and sold into sexual slavery.

And yes, these are dark situations in which the light of beauty must shine through. But if we cannot find beauty in the everyday occurrences in our lives…the mundane tasks…the simple things right in front of our faces, how can we find beauty among such depravity???

I believe that God wants to use us to bring beauty into the darkest places in the world. But I also believe that we must prove ourselves responsible with little, before He will entrust us with much, and that we must demonstrate an ability to “walk out” beauty in the natural before He empowers us to deal in the full potential of the power of beauty in the most spiritual sense.

Reveling in beauty is an attitude, a mindset, a heartset, a choice…and as you chose to recognize beauty and rejoice in beauty, you will come into a greater revelation of what it means to restore beauty and how to go about reconciling beauty…and will therefore be empowered to bring forth beauty in an even more potent way!

As we seek God, we find beauty. And in seeking beauty, we find God…as He is the original source of all beauty! Without Him, nothing would be beautiful! We experience beauty, because He is beauty!

Psalm 50:2 says, “From Zion, PERFECT IN BEAUTY, God shines forth.” The Bible also states, in several places, that if anyone were to see God’s face, shining in the fullness of its glory, they would instantly die. That’s a lot of beauty!...So much that God must hide it from us, just so that we can stay alive! But isn’t it such a blessing, that God doesn’t hide ALL of His beauty from us…He allows us to see and experience it through creation and through each other. So, it’s almost like in discovering beauty in something or someone in this world, we have discovered a tiny piece of the face of God…which would then suggest that in sharing beauty with others, we are giving them a piece of the face of God…WOW!

God wants us to experience “life and life to the full!”…to REVEL IN BEAUTY!

Why wouldn’t you take up on the invitation [in Psalm 34:8]?...to “TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD!”