Finding beauty - God is good at this. God is the master of looking beyond our failures and short-comings to discover something beautiful. One night while I was hanging out with a few friends, someone brought up a passage in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 4:5. Here it is. "Therefore, do not go on passing judgement before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God." (here's the whole chapter if you want to check it out 1 Cor. 4).
I was nervous, maybe even panicked, as I listened to this verse read out loud for the first time. Oh no, God will bring to light everything in my life? The things hidden in darkness and the motives of my heart? Then what? When He is done exposing and scrutinizing every aspect of who I am, what then? And then I heard it, each person's praise will come from God. Praise? God will be pleased? If this isn't good news, I don't know what is. Somehow He finds something in me that is of value, something worthy of praise, even after seeing all of my hidden motives and secret thoughts?
Let this marinate for a moment: our praise will come from God. He wades through anything we may have tried to hide. He uncovers our true motives. And then He praises us. He is pleased with us. He sees it all; the messiness and shame and brokenness and pain. But He isn't afraid of that stuff. He sees these things and still chooses to praise us, as any good father would.
Now, look outward...
Imagine it, what if each one of us decided to follow after God in this way? We would engage the messiness and shame and brokenness and pain that is present in people's lives all around us; but those things won't scare us. We would see the mess, and it will break our hearts; but that won't stop us from seeing and exposing the true beauty in people and lavishing praise and love. Maybe Jesus had this in mind when He told us that we are lights in this world (Matt 5:14...and many other places!). Maybe, He was hinting to us that He wants us to frequent the places that simply need a little light. After all, just a little bit of light in a very dark place illuminates everything - beautiful things once cloaked in darkness; beautiful things that should be praised.
Much love,
-Zach
1 comment:
Hey! That's a nice reminder - one that we all need. It's so easy to dwell on the ugly, the faulty. And I've never looked at that passage that way. I think I probably got caught up at the "exposure" part. So thanks!
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