Beauty

Another Way of Understanding Beauty

September 10, 2023

            “I never knew there was another way to see beauty,” said a student sitting in the back row. After fourteen weeks of the semester, my class learned about different historical views of beauty. They also learned the biblical view according to God’s Word. We captured and evaluated the different views of society and what those views reflected about people’s perceptions of the meaning of the universe, identity, and worth. From Classicism to Mannerism and from Decadentism to Abstract Expressionism, definitions of beauty followed society’s understanding of truth and reality. The backbone to our studies was learning a theological view of beauty, what the Bible said about beauty and how it defined beauty. We compared the societal views with the Biblical view. After teaching the class, “Beauty & Spirituality,” twenty seven times at Biola University, I observed a personal effect upon the students – freedom.

            “I didn’t know there were different ways to think about beauty,” my students commonly said. And they said, “I didn’t know there was such a thing as Biblical beauty.” Can you identify with these statements? I loved seeing the light progressively come on in their eyes week-by-week, as if someone slowly turned on the dimmer switch in their minds. As that happened, a burden on them fell off little-by-little. The burden was a definition, a paradigm of beauty they lived with unknowingly. They unconsciously assumed a definition, and, by that definition, they judged themselves, determined their pursuits, and decided on their actions. They obeyed whatever the definition demanded.

            Let me give an example. If beauty is defined subjectively by the majority opinion of your “circle,” then you will seek to be “beautiful” in the eyes of others, striving to be attractive in their eyes and vying for their validation of your beauty. Success under this definition of beauty affords attention, acceptance, and affirmation. Failure, however, renders being unnoticed at best, unaccepted or marginalized, and judged with demeaning. The consequences can be emotionally and personally grave. I’ve heard the testimonies of many young women having grown up with the grave consequences. But even the process of succeeding under such a definition is burdened with stress. Constantly attempting to satisfy the subjective desires of the majority is not only a fluid target but renders you tethered to the opinions of others. In the end, making the subjective opinions of others a standard for beauty leaves us empty because the subjectivity of others is not based on an objective definition. Herein lies the lack of freedom. The bondage is striving to fulfill a standard that is not objective, satisfying a definition that is shallow and shifting, and fearing social consequences for failing to meet the standard.

            But what if there is another definition?  

What if the subjective, popular opinion was not the only way to understand beauty? That may have been the way you grew up with.

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Beauty Beckons

September 9, 2023

            A complicated world, layered with strife and adversity, darkens our everyday. Bearing the burdens of life within a world full of demands presses on our straining souls. In bustling crowds of people trying to make it, we eventually taste the reality that everyone’s characters are blemished, and we are bound to be offended, disappointed, or hurt. But we ourselves are flawed too. Facing our imperfect selves in the mirror, we resent our potential to hurt others. We bear a sense of the brokenness of the world, of which we are a part. And yet, woven into this complicated mesh is a life-enriching reality that beckons us through the web of difficulties.

            God sewed beauty into the fabric of creation and seeps it in culture. From the gentle splendor like a painted butterfly to the grand splendor of a purple mountain, beauty calls out in a troubled world to weary souls. Absolute beauty defined with truth and goodness beckons us through the brokenness. The beauty resounds that there is still good and wonder around us, reminding us that God did not leave this world to chaos but still “makes everything beautiful in his time” (Eccl. 3:11).

After the close of a difficult chapter in my life, my spirit was worn down. My wife insisted that we take a trip to a place of natural and cultural beauty. Over a couple months, she searched incessantly for affordable plane tickets, and, eventually, her persistence paid off. We spent nine days on an island, where I was enriched by native art, I sat by waterfalls, I admired volcanic rock formations, I jogged on the seashore in golden sunrises, and I conversed with warm, loving, and inspiring people. I didn’t know how much I needed this beauty. The beauty was a sanctuary of of peace that facilitated a space for me to talk with God and to hear from him. Like plant food for a flower, beauty from God was nourishment for my soul.

I know we can’t all hop on a plane to go somewhere far away. But God embedded beauty everywhere, from a park with children at play to the jazz club with just the right ambience and tunes. We can find beauty on a screen in a dark theater. The beauty may be small, like a wildflower growing in an unexpected spot, showing its resilience to flourish with bright yellow color. Or, the beauty is simple, like that morning scent when you first walk out your door, and you take it in deeply, feeling it fill your lungs. The beauty tells us, God has not left us to our burdens and brokenness. The beauty beckons us to turn our eyes to him. Like a window to a secret paradise land, beauty shows us a wonderful reality from God exists even in the thickest gloom.

At the beckoning call of beauty, our minds are recalibrated to find the strength and inspiration to live and go on, because we know a good God is still here. Nurtured with a hint of inspiration, we can continue to strive on our journeys, because like Samwise Gamgee says, “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

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Why Beauty Matters to the Human Spirit

June 22, 2023

Beauty matters more to the human spirit than we expect. When I pastored in Hollywood, our church served an inner-city elementary school. As with many schools in the inner city, it struggled with funding. Beautifying the school was not in the budget. When in survival mode, beauty is perceived to be a dispensable luxury ranking at the bottom of a wish-list. But a surprising impact happened when we painted outdoor murals on the school. 

            Coming onto a campus with wrinkly cracked grounds and worn, grey walls, I dreamt with the principal about how our church could serve the school on their “clean-up” day.  We could go a step further than clean trash. We can add beauty to the walls that housed the children several hours a day. Our church painted a mural of a fairytale castle populated with fantastical characters and a friendly dragon. The mural framed the entrance to the main office. A second mural on an adjacent wall was a giant, imaginative tree with a warm face on the stem. Animals and signs with encouraging words hung all over the tree. A third mural of a colorful United States map was atop of the ground. Another organization also painted a mural of animals.

            A couple weeks after the murals were done, the principal and some teachers shared with us the effect the murals had on the children. Smiles and excited eyes on brightened faces beamed as children walked across the yard and pointed at the giant images that enfolded their space. The children’s moods and attitudes brightened with enthusiasm and motivation. The impact of beauty on the children was noticeable. The beauty enlivened their spirits.

            Why does beauty matter to the human spirit? Resonating with beauty is primal to being human. It is because the Creator of the Cosmos fashioned beauty as a standard of creation. God evaluated his own works in Genesis 1 and repeatedly called it, “Good,” a Hebrew term (tob) that connotes delight and pleasure over an attractive object. God intended the universe to be pleasingly attractive to Him, and He made it so. In the seven times God declared what he made was, “Good,” beauty is to be understood not as a by-product that happened upon creation, as if He created, then looked on it and said, “Oh, it’s beautiful.”  But rather, it was an intended outcome as if God said, “I will make it beautiful,” and so it was. Beauty is a quality of the cosmos, intended and forged from the mind of a visionary. By God’s exclamation over his own works, we see the passionate Almighty Being delights in what He deems beautiful.

            Then, when He created people, he fashioned man and woman in His image, unlike anything in creation. Among the many qualities of being image-bearers of God, resonating with beauty is interwoven in the fabric of the human spirit, because we were designed after a creative Maker who delights in beauty.

            It is no wonder that beautifying work environments, designing beautiful living spaces, creating beautiful objects, and beautifying oneself are the natural pursuits and activities of people in any civilization or society. We have an innate tendency toward beauty – seeking it and producing it. It is why we enjoy sitting in a beautifully designed coffee shop while sipping a cappuccino and why a plain, functional building space is unsettling but we adorn it with warm furniture, art and flowers. Our tendency toward beauty is grounded in a theologically founded identity. Whether simple beauties like a little girl weaving wild flowers into a bracelet or grand beauties like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, beauty is a human endeavor. Cultivating true beauty in the world is one of the most humanizing things to do, affirming the image of God in us.

So, where beauty is scarce, the soul is starved. True beauty, as God intended, nurtures the human spirit with a sense of what is good, right and true. It is no wonder that beautifying an inner-city school in Los Angeles enriched the children’s hearts. Adding beauty uplifts your humanity.