Beauty

The other day I received an email from my good friend Ben. We are talking as a base about what our vision is, and where we are going. Here is an excerpt from his email.

"The word is beauty. Not in the classical aesthetic sense only, but in a new way. Here are some examples of beauty, I think:

Bicycles (especially track bikes and tall bikes!)
Well-made espresso
Birth
Justice for the poor
Life-giving, challenging friendships
Art, in all it’s personalities...

Of course, not everyone thinks a placenta is beautiful, and not everyone likes ambient electronic music, but that’s the point. It’s long hallway, with a million doors cracked open.

Do you know what I mean? What if part of our “mission” is to bring/recognize/incubate beauty, in our city and our world. The discoveries that students make about their families, and about themselves, these are beauty. The first time an American kid sees what India looks like, the wells we dig... I could go on and on.

I want us to build beauty in this city, and everywhere we go. I want to make good art, build bikes, craft coffee, and hear people."

This is beautiful. I have been thinking of this since I received Ben's email Sunday. This has to be the way to live so that we can draw people to Jesus. Jesus is not a God of religion and law, He is a creator of all things beautiful. As a kid I used to have to hide the music that I liked from my parents because it was seen as bad, even though musically it was amazing. The music that I did keep on my shelf was called "Christian Rock" which was not very good, but it was allowed. In this I am saying that beauty does not just come from the Christian, it is in all of us, and it is from God.

One of the things I appreciate from the church that I attend now is that they do everything with beauty and professionalism. When they were starting they didn't have a worship band because no one in the church was good musically, so they found other way's to worship without music, I respect this. I pray that we as followers of the beautiful Jesus can live lives of beauty that draws others to Him.

Here are some things that I find beautiful:
The cross
My little girls laughter
Rain
Silence
Culture
Friends

I pray that we can live out lives out of beauty. That we would see beauty in the people and things around us and that we would project beauty on to them.