“It takes a person with real heart
to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”
— Clive Barker
The mocker and the scoffer will
mock and scoff at what is written here, but a tried and tested eternal truth
rests in these words. There is beauty to be made out of sadness, not the least
of which contact is made with the Spirit of God; that ethereal part of us that
wonders within the mysteries and enigmas of life.
The real substance of life is not
known through happiness or material bliss or certainties of success. The real
substance of life is known only through the processes of hardship, of
self-denial, and of the character-refining work that the mature must do in
order to become mature. There is no shortcut to maturity. But there is beauty
there and there is beauty to be made out of sadness.
What Is This ‘Beauty’ About?
How, exactly, do we make beauty
out of sadness?
In utilising an unorthodox method
within the midst of our sadness, we do not fight the discouraging and despairing
feelings that bristle within us. In a very plain sort of courage, we take our
truth—that which has caused us the sadness—and we do two things.
The first thing is we admit it,
and its disparaging effects. We don’t deny it, or get ashamed, or get angry about
it. We simply get real about our feelings. The second thing we do, at the same
time, is we rest in the truth. This can really only be done when we surrender before
God.
When we are real about the truths
in our lives, and we can rest in those truths, we have suddenly found we are
relying on God. This is what trusting God means. Being real about our sadness
and not railing against it forces us to consider what help we need and have
available to us.
This help we need—this help we
have available to us—is God.
In the process of reaching inward
in quiet moments of discouragement and despair we draw near, and God draws near
to us (see James 4:8).
What occurs from this drawing near
process is beautiful.
It took a mature heart to do this
work, to initiate and complete the transaction of surrender before God. It
takes a mature heart, also, to appreciate the beauty found as a result of
obeying God in this way.
***
The Presence of God is saved most
of all for the soul prepared to make beauty from their sadness. This person
goes to God and seeks guidance. They draw near. And they find what they are
looking for, when they are honest in their sadness and when they rest in that
truth.
God makes beauty out of our
sadness when we rest in, and rely upon, Him.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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