Beauty

Over the last few weeks I worked on writing a paper about beauty, attempting to answer what it is.  Through the process I learned a great deal and much of it actually connected to things I had been thinking about a lot over the last almost year in some cases.  As a result I was actually able to put many of my thoughts into words and that was incredible.  Basically what we did in the paper was first identify our presuppositions about beauty and what we consider to be a beautiful woman.  In doing this we considered how different things like family, friends, school, church, and media have shaped our view of beauty.  Next we looked at the different Hebrew words there are for beauty (there are 12) and how they are used in the Old Testament (they can mean majesty, glory, honor, rock, authoritative, desirable, covet, beautiful, handsome, etc.) and then try to sum up what beauty is in a biblical context.  After this we explored the idea of original sin and human nature through looking at the ideas of Augustine and Calvin as well as Newell.  We eventually had to take a stand on one of these and defend their point of view with four scriptures and find one scripture that seems to contradict it and explain how that works.  After that we basically summed everything up by saying what we think beauty is in the world and what a beautiful woman looks like.  I would like to share my thoughts on a few of these things. 

Through my research I found that I most agreed with what Augustine and Calvin said about original sin and human nature (essentially we are corrupted from birth because once sin entered the world it altered all of creation).  There are multiple passages that support this some of which are Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, Ephesians 2, Psalm 51, and Psalm 58.  One struggle I did have with this view had to do with being made in the image of God.  If we are sinful from birth, how can we be born in the image of God when He is all goodness and there is no sin in him?  The passage of scripture that seemed to contradict Augustine and Calvin's viewpoint was Psalm 139 where it says "...you knit me together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  I know that the image of God is a completely other much debated theological topic, but I thought about it on my own without any research.  When I think about the image of God I think beyond the attributes and characteristics described in the Bible and settle on His triune-ness; three in one; Father, Son, and Spirit all held together by agape love.  Agape being other focused, selflessly serving, pouring into others  without a thought about self.  This is God.  So taking that image of God I think of the creation of Adam and Eve, before the fall there was no sin and they partook in agape love relationship with one another and with God.  When sin entered the world it grossly changed EVERYTHING.  No longer were humans focused on others but on self.  Self love.  And this is how it is for everyone as soon as they are born.  However, the image of God is not lost I don't think, I think the image of God is found in our potential to have agape love relationships. 

This leads nicely into what I believe is beauty.  Beauty is God, specifically Jesus living a life of agape love in order that He could redeem those who are lost (EVERYONE is lost without Christ).  By lost I mean not able to partake in agape love relationships.  As it is impossible for a selfish person to be truly focused on anyone else but themselves all of the time, we as people need Jesus to come in and change our selfish hearts.  There is no beauty in the world without Christ.  I would argue that before Jesus came hope and beauty were found in the sacrifices that were made for their sins and seeking that forgiveness.

It makes sense.  We lost what we were created for at the fall, we were created to exist in agape love relationships, in the image of God, in beauty.  This is why we seek after it ALL THE TIME.  Our sinful nature however causes us to search for it in the wrong places because we just don't know the difference without Jesus showing us.  So instead of looking for Him we look to what the world says about physical beauty.  We look to the media, Hollywood, etc. and strive after impossible beauty that only creates a mask hiding our hurt inside.  We do seek to do good things for others like charity work and stuff like that which by human standards is good stuff but without Christ it doesn't cut it.  I can't think of the passage right now but I am fairly certain their is a verse in the Bible that talks about how even the good deeds of the wicked (all who don't have Christ) are not good.  We know we are missing something, but we don't know what so we dabble in one sin after another until Christ opens our eyes, sets us up on a rock and fills us with the Spirit giving us beauty.  Thus I don't believe real beauty is limited to only women, but that men can have beauty as well.  Beauty is simply Christ saving us from ourselves so that we may partake in agape love relationships and show this beauty to the world.   

Real Life

This has been a big weekend of thinking more or less for me...thinking and internal struggle.  I've been wrestling with the fact that I am not very good about being open and real with others since last spring and it's been convicting but I haven't really done very much to act on it.  God kind of,  ok not kind of, He definitely placed me in a situation this weekend to make this very clear to me and I was kind of able to be called out on it.  One of my roommates and I had a solid heart to heart about well community and more or less living life together.  You can't live life together without being real...that's not real life!  I have had a really hard time being real with others who are outside of my immediate family for a long time, and I think part of that reason was either I didn't want to burden them or I didn't want them to feel sorry for me or pity me.  But I've kind of come to realize that those things don't matter, people can't love you if they don't know what you're struggling with.  Love doesn't have to mean pity. 

A final thought I have regarding this stems from Shift.  For those who don't know Shift is a campus ministry I'm involved with at Bethel and basically what we do is reach out to the freshman class in hopes of forming relationships and having Bible studies as floor communities.  I'm a team leader for Shift this year which means I (with a partner) lead the Shift leaders, and one thing we committed to from the beginning was memorizing scripture together so we've just been taking turns sharing one of our favorite verses.  This weeks verse is Galatians 1:10 "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."  Now when I first heard this verse I was like "Duh, of course I'm not trying to please anyone but God," but as I have reflected on my life this weekend I have seen things differently.  Why am I not being real with those close to me?  Because I'm afraid of what they'll think or say?  Because I don't want to step on toes?  Those are definitely not focused on God for one thing, and for another those are not love!  Wow.  I feel like God has been trying to teach me this for a long time and it just now finally clicked! 

I have made a commitment to be more genuine with those around me.  Not genuine in the sense that I am really being kind or caring or those things...that is great but I want to be real with others, transparent, I want to go beyond surface level because I was created for more than that!  I have a purpose in this world and I cannot fulfill that by living halfheartedly...it's just not possible...

So if you feel led, I would appreciate your prayers in as I truly try to begin this new journey of real life. 

Lately there's been a lot of talk about community so I've been thinking about it quite a bit.  Community is or at least should be more than just living with or interacting with people.  I think true community involves sharing your heart with them...your true heart, what's really going on inside.  I think community (in a Christian sense) needs to be centered on Christ with a lot of selfless love.  I think this kind of love involves being intentional about your relationships within the community; intentional about seeking them out, intentional about having the hard conversations, intentional about living life together.  But here's something else I've been thinking about...how far do you pursue community if others don't seem to be interested?  Do you continue until God brings you to another place in your life?  Do you move on and seek true community elsewhere?  I feel like I could really see both being true, on the one hand I don't think that Jesus really just gives up on people necessarily...He continues to love.  But on the other hand, if we're supposed to be living in community with one another, building each other up in love, wouldn't it be better to continue loving  but move on at the same time?  Or is more or less giving up on relationships not loving?  How far does community go...I don't believe community can be done halfheartedly if it's going to be a true community...and why would anyone want to be real and transparent with others who are not intentionally seeking a relationship with them?  Oh Lord Jesus, what does one do in a situation like this one? 

Well those are just some of my present thoughts on community living...and here's some pictures from my last two weekends in wonderful Iowa :)

Roommates Kristen and Brittany

Roommates Tina and Roz :)

All of us after playing at this awesome park!

 

We got to see Lizzie :)

And we wished Lori was there...

Josiah scored 4 touchdowns in the first half of his game!  This is is fourth!

Sam and I enjoyed watching the game :)

I got to see Charley do quite a bit of flags...isn't she cute?  :)

 Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries too soon and I didn't get any with my parents or Shelb, but I loved getting so see them!  Home is my favorite place and I'm excited to head back there again next weekend!