Spoiler Alert

Nobody likes spoilers.  Forgive me for remembering the old days, but there was a time when you could only see something on TV or at the movie theater.  If you missed it on TV, then you deserved to have it spoiled for you.  If you had not seen the movie yet, you needed to get to the theater fast.  Of course with no social media, the opportunities for spoilage were more rare.

A plot is spoiled when we know what is going to happen.  Much of the Star Wars episodes 1-3 was spoiled before the movies were ever made.  We knew that Anakin would turn to the dark side.  We knew that he would father a couple of children.  Key elements of the plot held no suspense.

When the plot is spoiled, we know how the story ends.  We see the disasters coming, we expect the hero to arrive, we know who will still be standing.  So, for entertainment, all we have left is curiosity about the details.  We miss the suspense.  We find no surprise with the unexpected.  Our jaws never drop.  Many stories become old and trite. 

In American culture, the Bible has been spoiled.  We know how it ends.  We know all the twists and turns, the disasters and the deliverances.  We know that Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt.  We know that David kills Goliath.  We know that the big fish swallows Jonah and saves his life.  We know that Jesus turns the water to wine.  We know that the woman at the well comes to faith  We know that Peter walks on water.  We know that Judas betrays his master, who is executed for fictitious crimes.  We know that the tomb is empty. 

But those who hear these stories for the first time are astounded.  God parts the waters!  Jonah can't run away from God!  Jesus offends the religious people!  Jesus forgives those who murder him!  Love conquers hate!

We can tell these stories to children and watch their eyes light up.  But by the time we are adults, our eyes glaze over.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Tell me something I don't know.  What's your point?

If we can read the stories as though we have never heard them, we see just what a radical Jesus is.  We marvel at the power and love of God.  We get a glimpse of the story of God.

Maybe that's what childlike faith is all about:  reveling in astonishment at the work of God.

Happy November!

Now that November has arrived, our culture turns to thoughts of thanks. 

Yes, there is "No Shave November."  I just looked that up, and learned that not shaving has a cause.  By not shaving, men (and women?) seek to start conversations about cancer.  As I think about those who have engaged in this cause, they have probably told me about cancer experiences.  The money saved by not shaving should be donated to No Shave November, which shares proceeds with The American Cancer Society, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Prevent Cancer Foundation and Fight Colorectal Cancer.  Learn more at https://www.no-shave.org/.

There is also Nanowrimo, http://nanowrimo.org/, encouraging fiction writers to buckle down and crank out 50k words this month.  Sometimes writers need that extra encouragement to push through writer's block.  Many writers face the tension of having something to say, but not grinding it out on paper.  That's a lot of work.  But the best writers fight past the blinking cursor and dull syntax to breathe life into their ideas.  After all, God uses words to create.

But overall, our society thinks about thankfulness in November.  At Crossroads yesterday, we hung a large Thankfulness Sheet--an actual bed sheet--on the wall, encouraging people to write down what they are thankful for.  It will hang there all month, inviting written or drawn expressions of thanks.  I can't wait to see it full of gratitude!

So, whether you write or shave or not this month, please be thankful.  More than that, express your thanks to God and people. 

Gratitude builds relationships and that's what life is all about, Charlie Brown.

Waking Beauty

Throughout history, mankind has appreciated beauty in nearly every area of experience:  art, literature, architecture, engineering, design, arrangement, nature, astronomy, landscaping, music, mathematics, animals, gardens, food, geographical features, skies, birdsongs, rainbows, and human beings.  We find beauty in any location, medium or endeavor.  People seek out beauty.  While some argue that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, the world skips the debate and covets beauty.  We are drawn to it.  We gravitate to the beautiful patterns of fabric, the beautiful flowers in a garden, the beautiful buildings on a tour, the beautiful paintings in a gallery. 

We are also drawn to beautiful people.  Sometimes it is because of their outward beauty, the Barbies and Kens of the world.  Sometimes it is because of their inward beauty, found in the plain, ordinary folks, those not glorified in dolls or action figures.  Obviously most people fall somewhere in the middle on the beautiful to ugly continuum.  And for most people, beauty is desirable.

We are drawn to beautiful people, and we want to be beautiful ourselves.  Untold billions of dollars are spent on weight loss, muscle toning, wrinkle ridding, hair coloring, and hair restoring.  It seems that everyone wants to look better.

Yet there is a cap on physical beauty.  Dustin Hoffman once broke down in tears as he described his realization about beauty during the filming of Tootsie.  Dressing in drag for his role, he was made up as a woman.  The makeup artists finished their work and revealed the Tootsie look to Hoffman.  He protested.  This “woman” was not so good looking.  If he had to be a woman, he wanted to be a beautiful woman, he said.  The makeup crew confessed that they had done all they could do.  His beauty was maxed out.  Suddenly he realized what women have struggled with since the beginning of time.  Facial beauty has natural limits.  He was only playing a part in a movie.  Women have to face this every day.  Merely recalling that moment brought him to tears.  His experience highlights the double-standard for beauty:  culture looks for beauty in women but generally gives men a pass.

But there is another kind of beauty, inward beauty.  We all  know the jokes about the blind date who has a great personality:  she may be a dog, but she’s fun.  We also know people who are physically unattractive, but magnetic on the inside.  For these people, it is almost as if no one ever told them that they were homely.  The joy of life radiates from their eyes.  Surely some have advised them of their plainness, but they have chosen to listen to the Voice of Truth.  When you see that they don’t believe they are ugly, you begin to agree.  You see the real beauty.

We also know people who seem beautiful until you get to know them.  Eventually the lovely face looks like a mask, hiding the hideous personality.  The real human monsters may look like Ken or Barbie.

I recently went to a fast food restaurant to get a breakfast biscuit.  A young woman took my order, and I noticed the joy beaming through her eyes.  I walked down the counter to pick up my order and another young female worker greeted me with a glow of confidence and happiness.  How blessed is that store manager to have two such engaged, willing workers.  They both did possess a measure of physical beauty, but what struck me was their inner joy manifest in their expressions.  With scowls on their faces they may not have appeared beautiful at all.

I began thinking about the relationship between inward and outward beauty.  Inward beauty can actually create outward beauty.  However, outward looks never create inward beauty.  Outward beauty has limits, but inward beauty knows no limits.  Outward beauty always wanes with age, but inward beauty can grow forever. 

Character always wins the battle for beauty.  Joy in the soul brings real beauty.  It even changes the look of the face.  The better you know a joyful soul, the more beautiful he or she looks.  Inward beauty actually creates outward beauty.

The health or sickness of the soul always comes through..  Acid in the soul trumps physical beauty and often brings a hardness to the face.  Maybe your mother was right.  Your face can freeze that way.  Ugly souls turn beautiful faces sour.

But here’s the irony:  In our culture we spend mountains of time, effort and money on any tiny drop of beauty to be squeezed out of our limited looks, while we ignore the unlimited source of lasting beauty.  We pound away at the ceiling of our outward beauty, missing the open skies of soul beauty. 

In September 2013 the Huffington Post reported that American women spend over $426 billion per year for beauty products.  Nearly half a trillion dollars go toward women’s beauty products.  Add to that the investment men may make, and we get the picture of a culture obsessed with physical beauty. 

Instead, we can pour energy into developing the limitless, lasting beauty that brings joy and enhances relationships.  How can one develop inward beauty?  We can learn to love ourselves, and recognize our genuine worth, declared by God.  We can change our self-talk, to speak good things to ourselves, even as we would speak with kindness to a friend—or stranger.  We can choose not to listen to the voices that put us down, and listen to the One who gives his beauty to us.  Most of all, we have to believe it.  We have to trust that God gave his Son for us to give life and beauty to us.  We may all have features we wish were different, but most of us are more physically beautiful than we will believe.

God has given us the capacity to appreciate beauty all around us, and to find beauty in people.  The classical writers even found some objective standards of beauty.  They made no apologies for pursuing truth, goodness and beauty.  I do not fault people for recognizing physical beauty in people or for striving for their own physical beauty.  We just need to recognize that it is limited, it is often unfair, and it much less important than beauty within.

Maybe the blind dates with good personalities really do have more fun.