I spent four days writing a blog, then my computed died and I lost it all. Isn’t that the way sometimes? I know, I know, I should have pressed “Save Draft”, but I’ve become too reliant on my auto-saving Google Docs.
The beauty of the situation is that I’ve realized everything I wrote was wrong. I had spent four days typing up a sort of three point sermon with a beginning, middle, and eloquent end. Bleh. It wasn’t an outpouring of my heart or even saying what I wanted it to say. So, here we go again…
This phrase struck me a few weeks ago and hasn’t left my mind since. I don’t know to whom I should accredit this quip, but I love it – so thanks whoever you are. I kind of doubt this cute old lady from the picture said it, but she does have very sweet eyes.
If only we saw souls instead of bodies, how very different our ideals of beauty would be. What if we saw people passing by us as either people desperately needing to know Jesus or brothers and sisters we will rejoice with in Heaven one day? What if we saw hurting hearts and bruised souls, instead of slim bodies and cute headbands?
You know when someone comes up to you and complains about gaining “so much weight”, but when you look at them you can’t tell a difference? Or when someone has obvious hurt from a past relationship that everyone, but them, can see? I’ve realized lately that I’m the first one to notice something physically different about myself, but can be the last to notice deeper issues going on. Last month, I struggled with feelings of inadequacy to lead this trip. I was hearing the enemy say things like “you did the race 4 years ago, what do you have to offer now?” – such lies. I talked about it with our leadership group and Daniel had me list off different things I knew I was good at or what people have told me I am good at. Can you believe I was even questioning wether I knew enough about international travel to lead this group? I’ve been traveling almost non-stop for the past 5 years! It was a really good realization to have and to start walking in the truth that God chose me for this and has equipped me well for it.
When I met with one of our team leaders last week, they were expressing how people on their team were saying they don’t see growth in themselves yet (granted it’s only month TWO), but the people saying this were some that had grown the most! I realized I’m not alone in this blindness and so wanted to bring it up to you all. Our eyes can only see bodies, but why are we satisfied with that? Why not dig deeper into each others’ lives? Why not see souls?
This all convicted me of how I was handing out compliments. If I want people to grow beneath the surface, without being caught up in the superficiality of life – why am I validating them on their superficial elements? “Hey, cute shirt!” “I love those shoes!” If someone compliments my hair, I would feel pretty and would be encouraged to do my hair pretty the next day, searching for more compliments. But I don’t want to find my validity or my identity in things of this world. I want to be rooted in the truth and beauty of my Heavenly father and what He has created me to be. I want to compliment people on the fruits of His Spirit that I see in their lives. I want to compliment them on the overflow of grace I saw in them today or the beautiful peace they had about them in a time of turmoil. I want the spirit of comparison to be transformed into the spirit of encouragement! Instead of noticing how much prettier I think someone is than me and getting down on myself, I want to see how much more love-driven someone is than me and be encouraged to grow in that area! I hope you feel similarly and we can walk this out together.
I’ll finish this with some beautiful #prettygirlsuglyfaces from Stephanie and I to remind you guys that wether we are looking beautiful that day or looking pretty awful, look deeper than that and challenge/encourage us with what you see on the inside! We’ll be doing the same for you 🙂
