How do you decide what’s beautiful and what’s not? I’m not talking about beauty standards for people. (In 25 years of being a girl and 3 years of working with youth, I’ve found those to be more harmful than anything.) I’m talking about a general sense of beauty…something so awesome that you don’t even know how to respond, or a life event that lifts your spirits so high that no one can bring you down. Or maybe it’s in something that’s so simple, but that holds so much meaning for you. For example, the birth of a baby. Parents and/or grandparents post a picture of a brand new baby, and receive a flood of comments about how beautiful he or she is. If we’re being honest, NO baby is cute immediately upon arrival. BUT the whole concept of a new life being brought into the world is a beautiful thing, leaving people completely in awe, so in that sense, that new baby absolutely is beautiful!
The thing about beauty is that it’s totally experiential. What any one person finds beautiful depends solely upon his or her own experiences, which, in turn, makes it a personal thing. That means that what you find beautiful may not be viewed in the same way by someone else. Following my vacation a few weeks ago, I thought a lot about this idea of beauty, and it being tied to experience. Our trip took us west, through the Badlands, which I literally couldn’t stop saying how incredible they were (sorry, Mom and Dad!) and the Black Hills, to Mt. Rushmore, which you haven’t really experienced until you’ve been standing at the base of the mountain, up into nowhere Wyoming, and down into Colorado.
I’ve seen a lot of places in our great country. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon, to Florida beaches, up in the mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park, now through the Badlands, down south on swamp tours, Times Square in New York City, and the argument could be made for each of those places that they’re the most beautiful place in our country. But it’s all in how you experience it. For example, most people could agree on the beauty found in a lot of those places, but then there are other places that may require a more personal connection to find the beauty. Most people (“most” being a calculation I’ve made based solely on what I hear from other people) find the miles and miles and miles of flat ground covered in corn and bean fields of Central Illinois insanely boring terrain to have to drive through. However, that’s the place that I call home, and because of that very personal reason, I find so much beauty in that.
The definition of beauty is all perspective and personal experience, regardless of how and where it’s being applied. Not long ago, my personal experiences were telling me that beauty in life was nearly non-existent. I was pretty much convinced that real life was made up primarily of challenging situations with no easy fix, and I thought that the times when everything was going smoothly were the exception. That’s what my experiences were telling me, BUT, I have since learned to look for the positives in every situation, and it’s completely changed how I see beauty in everyday life. Right now, we live in a world overrun by sin. There are so many negative things happening on daily basis…racial tensions in our communities, ISIS running rampant around the Middle East and Europe, children living in poverty all over the world, an election season that seems to be challenging a lot of people…things that make it increasingly difficult to see the beauty of life. So how do we keep going? I would argue that, as Christians, we have it a little bit easier, because our hope rests in the salvation won for us through Jesus Christ. While it’s something that we constantly seem to be tested by, we’ve learned to trust in God’s plan and His timing. For that reason, we continue to see that life is full of beautiful moments!
I would encourage you to look for the beauty in each day, because each day is filled with experiences that continue to shape and grow us. At the end of the day, take 5 minutes to reflect…where did God make your life beautiful today? Take it a step further…how can you bring the beauty to someone else’s day? What can you do to engage with the people around you to give them an experience that will lead them to say, “Wow. That’s awesome,” or “That’s beautiful,” or “Maybe it’s not so bad after all?”
*Pro Tip: You don’t have to take them to the Grand Canyon. Something as simple as acknowledging their existence when you pass them on the sidewalk can do wonderful things.
For more thoughts on how to engage people in your community and help share your faith, check out cultureencounter.com .