God is uniquely equipped to see beneath our brokenness into our hearts and minds and souls to fully know that we are all beauty on the way to being formed.
He is, after all - I believe - the one who formed us. What he has formed he will always be able to see every part of. There's a closeness that can happen - a connection like no other - when you are in a relationship with a God always intent on seeing your beauty. A God who always believes you are on the way to becoming your most beautiful self. Many of us, myself included, don't always experience the fullness of that connection with God. I think there are three reasons for that. One - we tend to focus on our personal flaws way more than we focus on the beauty we are becoming. When we focus on our broken while God is focusing on our beauty, there's an obvious disconnect there. A spiritual life not on the same page with the spirit. Two - when we focus on our flaws, that tends to influence what we focus on in our relationships with the people around us. If I'm not curious about the beauty in me, I'm sure not going to be as curious as I can be about the beauty in you. But that's precisely why God created us to be in relationships with one another, to be mutually curious about the beauty we are all becoming. So three - if we don't ever get to experience the connection that happens in real life with one another built on a mutual curiosity of one another's beauty, it's very difficult to feel and believe that God is curious about our beauty. If the people around me aren't interested in seeing the beauty beneath my brokenness, why on earth does it even matter that an invisible God is? It's very difficult to experience the fullness of a relationship with God if we aren't experiencing the fullness of a relationship with someone around you. I think changing that - maybe healing that - starts with me. It starts with you. It starts with believing that you are beauty on the way to being formed. Whether you choose to believe it's because God says it's so or because it's simply just a healthier way of living for you and me to believe it is so. I think that's where it has to start. We all get a chance to look in a mirror. And for most of us, we will see not an image, but a perception. OUR perception. That perception will be that image is a disaster. A disaster that is and a disaster that is a bigger disaster waiting to happen. Or. Our perception will be I'm looking at beauty on the way to being formed. Wherever I am in that mirror today - it is only a step on the way to beauty. And when what you're looking at is a step on the way to beauty - it IS beauty. If you're reading this, you ARE beauty on the way to being formed. I believe that because I believe God formed you that way. But even if you don't believe that about God - well I also believe it because I am beauty on the way to being formed. And many days that's a beauty I have to see beneath a lot of problems and a lot of brokenness. It is some days not an easy view to access. But I do. So if I can see it in me, I know YOU can see it in you. And if I can see it in me, then I can surely see it in you. And I do. You are beauty on the way to being formed.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
February 2025
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