The Truth about Beauty
Beauty
So a few evenings ago I was out on the porch enjoying the remnants of an already descending sun. The Mountain air was warm but fresh around me and the sound of local children playing resonated across the small mountain neighbourhood I currently call home. Everything was in its right place and the world around me seemed totally at ease with itself. It was the kind of evening where you can see the fingerprints of God all around you. Not for the first time my heart swelled with greatfulness and I thanked the Lord for filling the world with such beauty.
The world is full of beauty and you dont have to look very hard to find it. I can see it everywhere. Its in the face of my wife, in the memory of childhood times spent with my parents. All of nature is soaked in it. Its inbetween the melody and the rhythm of my favourite Van Morrison songs. Its in the broken poetic beauty of the psalms. Its in the silence and its in the noise. When you really get down to it its a sweet creation we exist in.
You cant escape it though.. despite all its beauty creation is also filled with alot of ugliness too. Right there mixed in with all the wonder you can find brokeness and hurt and pain and squalor and depravity and paranoia and hate and sometimes worse of all..just numbness. And disapointment.
the way you percieve the world around you really depends on what you choose to dwell your thoughts on.
Philipians 4:8 says "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things".
I wonder if we examined the things we choose to dwell on each day could we really claim to be focusing on what is true, honorable, pure and lovely. We could look alot deeper than this but lets just for now focus simply on what we allow ourselves to be entertained by. The most popular television shows will nearly always celebrate squalor, depravity, broken relationships, broken familys, idiocy and they nearly always teach us that wrong is okay.
We then wonder why society is the way it is. We wonder why so many people we know are depressed, tormented and anxious. God knew what he was doing when he commanded..yes that right..not just suggested.. commanded, us to dwell on the good and true and pure and beautiful.
If the television set is pumping your mind and the minds of your children full of junk then just switch it off. Look at what you are watching. Ask yourself if the show you are watching represents what you would like your own life to be like..if the answer is no then turn the thing off. If the thought of your child being involved in the same mess that the tv show is demonstrating repels you..then switch the chanel to something more edifying.
Cleaning up your television watching habit is just the start. The same kind of fine tuning can be applied in every area of your life. Drink in God. Breath in the aroma of goodness and greatness. Stretch out and grab the things of beauty and wonder in the world. Turn a blind eye to the things that pollute your ears and eyes and heart.Go walk on a beach at night. Most all get to know Jesus Christ better or maybe even for the first time. Enjoy the beautiful things in the life that God has given you.
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things".
So a few evenings ago I was out on the porch enjoying the remnants of an already descending sun. The Mountain air was warm but fresh around me and the sound of local children playing resonated across the small mountain neighbourhood I currently call home. Everything was in its right place and the world around me seemed totally at ease with itself. It was the kind of evening where you can see the fingerprints of God all around you. Not for the first time my heart swelled with greatfulness and I thanked the Lord for filling the world with such beauty.
The world is full of beauty and you dont have to look very hard to find it. I can see it everywhere. Its in the face of my wife, in the memory of childhood times spent with my parents. All of nature is soaked in it. Its inbetween the melody and the rhythm of my favourite Van Morrison songs. Its in the broken poetic beauty of the psalms. Its in the silence and its in the noise. When you really get down to it its a sweet creation we exist in.
You cant escape it though.. despite all its beauty creation is also filled with alot of ugliness too. Right there mixed in with all the wonder you can find brokeness and hurt and pain and squalor and depravity and paranoia and hate and sometimes worse of all..just numbness. And disapointment.
the way you percieve the world around you really depends on what you choose to dwell your thoughts on.
Philipians 4:8 says "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things".
I wonder if we examined the things we choose to dwell on each day could we really claim to be focusing on what is true, honorable, pure and lovely. We could look alot deeper than this but lets just for now focus simply on what we allow ourselves to be entertained by. The most popular television shows will nearly always celebrate squalor, depravity, broken relationships, broken familys, idiocy and they nearly always teach us that wrong is okay.
We then wonder why society is the way it is. We wonder why so many people we know are depressed, tormented and anxious. God knew what he was doing when he commanded..yes that right..not just suggested.. commanded, us to dwell on the good and true and pure and beautiful.
If the television set is pumping your mind and the minds of your children full of junk then just switch it off. Look at what you are watching. Ask yourself if the show you are watching represents what you would like your own life to be like..if the answer is no then turn the thing off. If the thought of your child being involved in the same mess that the tv show is demonstrating repels you..then switch the chanel to something more edifying.
Cleaning up your television watching habit is just the start. The same kind of fine tuning can be applied in every area of your life. Drink in God. Breath in the aroma of goodness and greatness. Stretch out and grab the things of beauty and wonder in the world. Turn a blind eye to the things that pollute your ears and eyes and heart.Go walk on a beach at night. Most all get to know Jesus Christ better or maybe even for the first time. Enjoy the beautiful things in the life that God has given you.
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things".