huh?

Last night I was sitting in my room and listening to Mozart (I happen to love classical music, although, most people know me for my penchant for classic rock).  His music is mysterious.  At moments raw and penetrating, at others filled with sincere emotion, but always graceful.  It is, in a word, beautiful.

I was feeling so inspired that I wrote the following ideas in my journal.  I hope you enjoy them.

Mozart has a simple power, a graceful storm as it were.  It is a beautiful potency that overtakes me and yet leaves me with peace.

I think that beauty is like that.

Powerful.

Graceful.

Vehement.

Gentle.

Abrasive.

Beauty disarms.

Whether it is the young man that sees the lovely girl across the room and falls instantly in love, or the songwriter discovering a melody that brings the right emotions to his lyrics, or the artist stumbling through the colors of his pallet trying to capture a sunset, beauty has the ability to capture us completely.

There are times when this can be a terrible truth.

The young man walks across the room and the lovely girl decides to make him her project, her puppet.  The songwriter, so taken with his music forgets his responsibilities.  The artist, gazing into his picture desires to escape reality.

Beauty is often used to manipulate, to hurt people.  We allow ourselves to give into beauty, thinking that if we surrender to it we can somehow take a deeper pleasure in it.  Maybe we desire to become one with it.  Maybe we hope that by being a part of this beauty we will have fulfilled some unknown need.  Maybe we are convinced that we lack beauty and so we try to make up for our lack by doing whatever we have to get closer to this beauty.  In these cases, we bceome slaves of beauty and lose ourselves.

Because beauty disarms.

When beauty is used for a means that is not pure, it is not beauty.  In fact, it is nothing more than a lie.  And lies destroy.

But true beauty, real beauty, heals.

I am reminded that God is beautiful and thus, much of creation reflects His beauty.  As in the previous instance, the beauty attracts us, but this time, the beauty does not end.  This beauty is true.

This time the young man finds that the girl is so deeply beautiful that he is compelled to be a better man, the songwriter is able to share his song with the world and others take in the beauty that he has shared, finding truth.  The artist understands that his art is a reflection of his maker, the Great Artist.

The more that I pursue God, the more terribly beautiful I see that He is.  I am attracted first by His beauty, then I realize my lack, but then, the most beautiful thing of all happens: He sees my lack and invites me to take part in His beauty.  His beauty frightens me.  His beauty encourages me.  His beauty humbles me.  His beauty forces me to be honest.

Because beauty disarms.