“Beauty will Save the World”: Examining a Life Well-lived

“Beauty will save the world” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

I think its a somewhat overly-quoted phrase, but if you don’t believe it with your whole heart and live it out you need to hear it again!

I was re-reading a section of Roger Scruton's “The Soul of the World” the other day. In it, he discusses the ornamentation of ancient temples:

"A temple is not simply a work of load-bearing stone. The column is carved, fluted, adorned with plinth and capital, crowned by a frieze or an arch, or joined in heavenly vaults where stone achieves the lightness of the sky, through moldings and decorative details the stone is filled with shadow, acquires a translucent appearance, as the face is translucent to the spirit within." (P. 124)

That translucency, that showing forth-a spark of the spirit within, points to the deeper reality behind the ordinary. These are no mere stones. It begs the question why? Why would humans go to the vast extent they did to create such an otherworldly structure? In doing so, they celebrate what is of value to them. They mark what is of importance by the time spent, the effort made, the attention to detail, the dignity bestowed upon the otherwise ordinary stone by the crown of beauty. In a world without deeper meaning it would be madness, a waste of time.

The temple's beauty is not just for us! Though it is a gift to us in that it stands as a reminder of what is of value, its beauty is also worship. It glorifies that one for who's or what's purpose it was made.

We, who were made to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) within the temple of our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19), have the opportunity to 'adorn' what is of value to us, bringing order and beauty to our lives. Where do we place our time and attention? Everything within our sphere of influence can be made an offering, that is the point of the temple, to make a sacrifice of praise.

Are we caring for our sphere of influence?

Keeping our spaces clean and beautiful, our cars oiled, our dog groomed, our bodies filled with nourishment and well-rested, our people loved and cared-for?

-> Taking care of things, big and small, demonstrates our appreciation for the gift that they are.

-> Expending our effort to make them beautiful in their own way 1) brings glory to God, because it reflects the beauty of God when things live/operate as he made them able. 2) Makes them something you can share: Your clean house is a space you can welcome others and give them the gift of a restful domain. Your taken-care-of dog will live longer and bless more people with his enjoyable-ness. Your oiled car will take your more places where you can do good to the world. Your well-rested self is more of a gift to others than your tired grumpy self, and your well-nourished health radiates the beauty that befits the dignity of a son or daughter of God. Hopefully loving and caring for people is self-explanatory. :)

-> Do we have so much we can’t take care of everything well? The root of this could be multiple things- maybe we literally have too much and need to purge- keep what is most important and get rid of what you don’t need, let it be a blessing to someone else. Maybe its too many things that take our time. Too many commitments. I used to have a huge problem with this. What finally opened my eyes to the issue was hearing someone say that overcommitment is a form of pride. It’s trying to operate out of your own strength in spheres of influence that God did not ask you to take on. Do you have extra things because they are fun/exciting? See how these things take time from you living the priorities in your life to the fullest. Do you have a hard time saying no/think something needs you or won’t be able to thrive if you leave? That’s pride speaking - you want to be a people-pleaser, or you think you’re so important you’re irreplaceable. It may well be from a well-intentioned place, such as not wanting to leave a volunteer work or a bible-study where you’re a key voice. But if you’re filling a spot you’re not meant to be in, your preventing the person who is actually called to that from taking that role on, and your neglecting the work God’s asked you to accomplish well. Whatever the reason, a cluttered home, a cluttered calendar, mis-ordered priorities, these things prevent us stepping into the order God invites us to, and in fact demands of us when he asks for a complete offering of our lives.

How does beautiful living save the world?

I once heard the Kansas City director of Vocations say something along the lines of “if everyone found and lived out their vocation, the hungry would be fed, the sick would be cared for, every need would be met with love”. I’ve probably completely changed the quote since this was over 8 years ago and I didn’t write it down, but that’s the essence of the message that’s stuck with me all these years. I believe he’s talking here about the Universal call to holiness, the invitation to sainthood, to glorify God by the offering of our whole lives.

Pope Benedict XVI once said ‘Art and the Saints are the greatest apologetic for our faith.’ And its so true! The beauty of a life intentionally lived in union with God radiates the good promises of God. And beauty is the emblem that shines on all that is true.

So it works in all ways! The beautiful offering of our entire lives, all that we are and do:

->Invites us into worship, that for which we are made.

->Showers the world with the life of God; his blessings pour forth from the faithful who become his vessels to love the world. Priorities are attended to with care, nothing slips through the cracks.

->Stands as a beacon of light, showing forth the goodness of the eternal hidden within the ordinary. This gives hope and intense meaning to the simplest of things.

Embracing the Call of an Artist

Hello all! I’m in a new season of life, recently ending 4 years of work with SPO as an admin missionary, and now entering a season of full-time motherhood.

During this new season I’m also cultivating a small art business and ministry, which in some ways feels like I’m stepping into my “dream job”, even if in just a part-time capacity. Here on this website, and particularly as of the writing of this blog, you’ll find the humble beginnings of an artist trying to make sense of many dreams and visions and discern what is meant to be embraced and cultivated in this particular season.

I’ve wanted this moment for a long time, and in the couple years leading up to this transition and still now as I begin to enter in, I’ve done a lot of reflecting on the dichotomy between the general understanding of a “dream job”, even in the Christian sense of being called to “do” or “be” something with one’s life, and another understanding which I’ve come to consider “living out of a calling”. In the previous sense, you arrive one day at your “calling” and start living out of it at that moment, when all the pieces line up, and after much hard work leading up to it. That’s how I used to understand my calling as an artist, and honestly how I feel tempted to think about it all the time. In that mindset, one can imagine being fulfilled by one’s work, and in the moment they don’t feel satisfied they can buckle down and work hard, telling themselves they just haven’t “arrived” yet.

BUT, allow me to share with you a taste of the other sense, and how it comes with absolute freedom to embrace your calling, your unique design and the talents God’s given you, while going through every season of life in its good time, fulfilled whether or not in any season the “dream” comes to full fruition.

(side note - I’m using the words “dream” and “call” here somewhat interchangeably, which comes with the presumption that the “dream” has been submitted and discerned. Our deepest desires and dreams will be fulfilled in God (though most certainly in a deeper and more fulfilling way than we’ve dared to hope/are capable of comprehending - for which reason we must consider our dreams shallow and ask God to reveal the deeper need and desire we have.) Because of the shallowness, we ought not expect every hope and desire we have be answered in the initial way we thought of it, but with much prayer and aligning our hearts with the promises of God, we can expect our desires and dreams to be refined into real tangible things that are noble of pursuit. At this stage, a “call” in your life may well present itself as a dream or desire, because your deepest desire is for the Lord. What he invites you too will ignite your heart and be life-giving, a stepping stone on your journey towards him.)

But back to the main point -

In the second sense, “living out of a calling”, your call unfolds throughout your life, taking on different forms, drawing out different talents and skills, challenging you and growing you in different ways. Perhaps at one point you’ll find yourself embodying the call really obviously or practically - as in a career surrounding it. At other times you may have very little time to put whatever it is into practice, but it still captivates your heart and mind and is an important part of you, and you live it out in many small ways. The focus becomes not the call, but the pursuit of God and the transformation of your life into his image. That is the universal calling, to become the ‘Imago Dei’. In different seasons of my life I’ve seen parts of my personality grow and fade, different skills brought to the forefront, different lessons learned, different weaknesses exposed. I look back on each season with gratitude, not because each season has been enjoyable. Rather I look back with a deeper joy and sense of peace because I can see God's hand in each circumstance and receive it as a gift.

Life is the journey by which God makes of us a masterpiece, transforming us into his own image. And he places us right where we need to be for that transformation to happen, its simply up to us to embrace that time and the grace he gives in it.

It’s been most freeing to “live out of my calling”. You see, I have a theory that we sometimes take a look at our desires and talents and associate them with a very specific way of life so that those things can be explicitly lived out. For myself, I realized in college that certain passions of mine, such as beauty’s evangelistic potential, coupled with my talent for drawing and painting, along with other personality traits that make me vision-driven and entrepreneurial, all just seemed to point to an art career. Once I realized that, it was hard to separate the things that make me uniquely me from my idea of how that could practically play out. But by submitting that practical vision of an art career, and allowing God to place me in different circumstances in my life, I’ve been able to see how he continually both pours into me through those areas of my life, and gives me places to pour out through them, what a gift! By trusting him with our circumstances we’ll find we have many opportunities where we can pour out in way that gives life to the world and reciprocally fills us with the life of God.

I’m eager for this new season, and grateful for the practical ways I can embrace the desire to be an artist. But I’m even more grateful in advance for whatever work he’s up to in my life, and through my life. It all leads me back to a sense of deep wonder at the ways of God and his love for us. In all circumstances then, let us give thanks! (1 Thess. 5:18).