"The joy and beauty of freedom and love must be bought with pain"
Gerald May, Addiction and Grace
Beauty. They say it lies in the eye of the beholder, and I think this may be true. I've seen it in the trash dumps of Nicaragua, where orphans selflessly saved their scavenged food to take home to their families. I've seen it in my at-risk city kids, resilient and fearless as they performed on stage during a camp awards ceremony for their peers. I've seen it in my special needs classroom, where laughter was always the first and best medicine. Beauty is everywhere, you just have to know where to look.
I think the thing that we forget, however, is that beauty must come at a cost. Not a monetary cost, though some do try to buy it. But a personal cost. A fight. An interaction with pain. And mostly, we don't like this. I know I certainly don't. In the fast paced world that we live in, we want things now. We want them to be easy and quick, we want them to be free. But light cannot come without darkness, and true beauty is not always immediately attained.
To me, beauty is often about the struggle. Why are we moved to tears by soldiers coming home to their families or Olympians winning their first medal? Cancer survivors and excellent teachers? Kids who are heroes...really anyone who is a hero? We are struck by their example of love and sacrifice. Their choice to fight for purposefulness in the place of being complacent. It means something because it took something to get there.
Sometimes it means giving up a dream, and other times it means fighting really hard for one. There is no formula, no typical and perfect example. But we all know it when we see it. We are moved, we are full...we feel a certain amount of freedom and love. It is the truest form of living, and we are blessed to experience it. It gives us hope for the future, and something to strive for in the present. It's real. And we need more of that. More genuineness and truth. More light. More beauty.
And it doesn't always have to be extreme. We are beautiful just by being who we are--flaws included. By choosing to acknowledge someone who is suffering, or by striving to be different than the status quo. And that can take work at times. Mustering up the courage to be authentic in a culture that is frequently fake is no small task. We are likely to experience failure, haters along the way. Change is a process, and pain is often part of the deal.
One of my favorite verses says this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The land of the living. That's here--that's now. There is goodness to be found this side of heaven. There is redeeming work being done every day, both big and small. You have your own handful of beautiful moments already, I'm sure. You also have your share of pain. Take heart. The beauty that comes from brokenness is not wasted. But you get to choose what you do with it.
Beauty bought with pain. May you find the courage today--it's worth it.
