Beauty Isn't What Is Seen

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 27-29.

Opening Thought: I have been a casual artist for most of my life, when I was young I would draw pictures, in my youth I discovered painting, and as I got older I began to appreciate all sorts of artistic expression. Beauty is something you twirl and dance with as an artist. Sometimes the beauty is obvious in use of color and form, other times it is subtle, you have to look at it, sometimes it is in the statement or message you're trying to send, and sometimes it is in the humility that comes for a horrific image. Beauty is complicated, as they say it is in the eye of the beholder. As this title says, beauty is unseen, so that means it must come from within, placed on our hearts by God.

The devotional begins with: 
Proverbs 31:30-31

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she
            shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in
            the gates.

Second Thought: Vanity is rampant in society, especially within social media. Media and pop-culture have been about glamour and style, riches and fame for as long as it has existed – people long to be one of the beautiful people of the world. Its funny though, how often we see these so called “beautiful people” in the news coming out with having: depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, violent or abusive personalities and the list could go on. Why is it that people who have everything can still be as broken and hollow as the rest of us? It is because that beauty is only skin deep and pop-culturally specific. Now, with social media, it seems like everyone with a camera has a chance to be the pretty person in the spotlight, especially if you have an image filter on your smartphone to hide all those blemishes away. The funny thing to me is when you see this endless parade of people flashing photos of themselves with these blemish removers and these beautifying filters on, the result is everyone looks the same. What makes them uniquely them, the things that make them a unique creation of God’s hands has been taken away to serve and worship some false claim to what beauty is. This reading today challenges us to think about how we perceive beauty, Proverbs, connects it with people who fear the Lord. (We must understand this word fear better, don’t think of it as fear as in, I fear that horror movie, rather a fear in awe and wonderment, like an ant looking at a skyscraper, or the vastness of the ocean. I can talk about this more – put a comment if you would be interested in that.)  This idea of beauty being linked to a relationship with God is so important, because for me it implies that there is a transformation of the person soul, when they have a relationship with God.

I think of a few people I have met that have gone out of their way to checked every box on this month’s edition of Cosmopolitan or Vanity Fair's definitions of beauty, and yet their inner spirit makes them ugly. When your inner spirit is not beautiful, it can almost alter the perceptions of reality, making people who by all definition seem beautiful, become repulsive. On the flip-side, I have met a few people also who just radiate that love of God, they are so intertwined with their faith, that it echoes into their spirit and in turn, I feel it takes them to something beyond the physical appearance to an aura of beauty. You feel calm with them, you like to speak with them, you feel safe with them, and when you look at them you see and feel their beauty as a unique and harmonious creation of God.   

Continual Work: “Love yourself as God loves you – for what is on the inside.” My brother in law just got a high-powered gaming computer, it is very nice looking, sleek black design and has some flashy lights too. Although it looks great, what makes up its internal parts is what makes it so special. It is designed for gaming, its computes fast, and its image specks are perfect for those who like to dive into digital adventures. If you took the same components and put them in a duller packaging, the true value of what that computer does would still be the same. We all need to remember that our packaging isn’t perfect and beauty is fleeting, so let’s show value for the truest of beauty, what is internal; what our body holds – our soul, our mind, our heart, and the law of God written upon us.  

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I would love to say that I have never been one who cared what other think about my appearance, but that would not be true. A part of my calling and career is to get up in front of groups of people and talk about faith, suddenly eyes are upon me. The one blessing I have had, is I have seen what vanity has done to other minister and preachers I have known over the years, where I see their ministries die out because they have spent more time idolizing their image rather than pointing people towards God. This is a balance that we all must face, but I will strive to not get caught up in glamour.

Scripture time: Proverbs 31:10-31  

The section of scripture from today’s devotional comes from a larger epilogue in proverbs about the characteristics of a noble wife. I find it interesting that these characteristics of beauty, i.e., of being fearful of God, come from a description of a women, especially in contrast to today - where so much emphasis on beauty and being beautiful is put on the shoulders of women. I want to list some of the characteristic of this noble women of proverbs: good, works with eager hands, provider, caregiver for all people, wise in her productivity, strong, generous, pragmatic, good partner, dignified but can laugh at the days to come, speaks wisdom, good mother. This woman is prized more that rubies, there is nothing that trumps her worth in the created world. These characteristics are not of face or body, but of fortitude and faith. If you want to see where evil is hiding, look to what in our society pulls us away from valuing the wider gifts that God puts in people, in exchange for idolizing the mere shallow and superficial qualities. I would go as far to encourage people to boycott these industries, not in a full-out rejection, but merely for your own renewal. How much time, money and energy do you put into, make-up, brand-name clothing, fancy cars, getting your hair and jewelry just right, popping up social media pictures. I think everyone want to look beautiful, women and men, and there is a point and a value to it for sure, but when it overtakes you, when you start serving it, then it is time to reevaluate, as vanity rots the soul.

Prayer Time: Mother in Heaven, Your noble character echoes into the creation of the world. You birthed this world with a core spectrum of beauty, when we pluck just one of those definitions out and form an idol-promise to market and sell, we bring shame to ourselves. Allow us to feel but a hint of that shame, so that it may awaken us to Your truth, a truth that rallies behind Your child with a noble call, reminding us all that we each have beauty, and the more we align to Your will, the more that true beauty will work in this world. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close: Sometimes to break our tie to the pop-cultural and/or superficial definitions of beauty we first must be willing to expand the definitions first. Follow the link below to see some extraordinary images of the many faces of God’s creation.

https://gabrielabadica.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/beauty-comes-in-all-colors-superb-photographs-of-people-from-around-the-world/