"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." [Romans 8:18]
"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." [2nd Corinthians 4:17,18]
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they can not fathom what God has done from beginning to end...I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it." [Ecclesiastes 3:11,14]
"You meant evil against me, but God meant it for Good, to accomplish what is now being done. So then, don't be afraid." [Genesis 50:20,21]
Don't these promises just warm you up inside? ;-) My problem is that I hear them and want to know how long the pain will last before I can see them fulfilled. Like a little kid in the backseat, I'm groaning, "Daaaaad.....are we there yet??" as I pout and miss all the beautiful scenery and the thrill of a road trip. I think it's important that we don't miss the beauty of the pain, in and of itself, separate from the ultimate glory and good.
I heard a sermon this morning on one of the beatitudes listed in Matthew 5: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." The pastor made the point to address that hunger and thirst in themselves are not typically regarded as very glamorous, or even very righteous, because they are indicators that something is lacking, someone is empty. The person who is spiritually empty and drained, and who is literally starving to be filled with something only the Lord can provide, is blessed. He urged us not to miss the beauty in the hunger and thirst alone...in the emptiness. God can't fill me with His spirit if I'm already filled to the brim with my own desires, my religion, my schedule, my self-righteousness, my anything.
Maybe as you're waxing, tweezing, squeezing those abs into perfection, you try to remind yourself "Beauty is pain, sista." Or maybe that's just me. But the truth of this paradox will set you free- the deepest beauty is a product of the deepest pain. Take the cross. No bride on her wedding day will ever be a more stunning picture of Love than the bloody and battered body of Jesus Christ nailed to a cross. Don't let tradition and repetition numb you from that word nailed. That excruciating physical pain was only the start for Jesus; the sins of ALL of us were hurled onto Him. I can barely handle the weight of my own sin, burdens, hurts, baggage, and grief. But all of humanity's? Our pain can't compare. We love the pictures of Jesus hugging lambs and little children , but this image of the King with all the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain being beaten and ripped into Him, isn't easy. But it is beauty.
Let's not close our eyes and hold our breath as we begin to feel pain. Yes, it is real, it is inevitable, and it will knock the wind right out of you... but it is beautiful, because it is merely the growing pains taking a caterpillar to a butterfly. In this, we can rejoice when we hurt, because we are reminded of our desperate need to be emptied and filled with the Holy Spirit, which is beauty in and of itself. But we also have the hope that can only be found in complete trust-- that yes, God is working for our good, we are entering a season of necessary and irreplaceable growth, and He is making our lives new and more beautiful than anything we could have ever dreamed...in His time. And "when our greatest heartache becomes our greatest ministry, God's grace comes full circle."
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us.
You make me new, You
are making me new.
[Gungor]
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