I have a friend, Jamie Stilson, who pastors the Cape Coral Vineyard in southern Florida, who wrote a book called the Power of Ugly. Jamie shares that Jesus can take ugly things, and through his grace, make them beautiful. I believe that is true with all my heart. I think God does that with the difficult times in our lives. I think he can do that with people, with marriages and families, with cities and nations. I think God loves to take the ugly, apply his grace, and make it beautiful.
When I think of God transforming the ugly to beauty in my own life, I think about learning to see, and make space for, the beautiful and transcendent in my everyday life and routine. We all know that our daily schedules can get pretty ugly. It is so easy to let the busyness of ordinary daily life crowd out the joy, beauty, and peace of being in relationship with Jesus. The beauty of God can be bursting out all around us yet we are to absorbed by the pressures of the day to notice it.
Life will always have its pressures and stresses. Life will always be full of things we have to do. Life will always throw us loops that can interfere with our sense of peace. The real key to experiencing God's peace is to allow ourselves to be filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit during the ordinary routines of life so that which seems profane (ordinary), can become sacred. That which feels ugly can reveal its beauty. That which feels God-absent can show itself to be God-filled.
The Jewish people and the early Christians were great Sabbath keepers. Think about Sabbath for a second. We have a God, who when describing what the created order is like builds in a vacation every week. A time for rest, peace, and thoughtfulness. What does that teach us about God and his character?
The church for many years had a liturgy for daily living. When the faithful awoke they spent a little time in prayer, when they broke for lunch they spent a little time in prayer, before they went to bed they spent a little time in prayer. In many places these hours of prayer were experienced in community. Now this can become religious activity (a duty we perform to try to be more excepted by God) which is the spiritual kiss of death, but if instead of seeing it as a duty we see it as an opportunity, an opportunity to experience Sabbath during our day, little vacations from the ordinary pressures of life where we can discover God's peace and beauty, then Sabbath becomes a well of life flowing from God to us.
Doesn't Sabbath sound beautiful and appealing?
What if the church made it's central mission to help people experience the beauty of a relationship with Jesus by teaching people how to reconnect with the rest and peace of God? What if they made their central mission helping people get to know the Lord of the Sabbath; the king of rest, of peace, and of wholeness.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28–30).
What if those words are actually true? What if that truly is God's nature?
