“Everything in your life can be used as an ingredient for something beautiful.”
Loren Thornburg
Glory is something that is magnificent, beautiful, or distinctively special. This summer I walked up the Great Wall, jumped off the base of the Gaza Pyramids and stood underneath the Eiffel Tower. One thought prevailed throughout, “I never dreamed I would be here…” It wasn’t ever a thought for what I wanted to do or who I wanted to become. These moments make it easy to see the glory that is my reality. Yet, what about when our lives aren’t in these moments of awe. What about when we are walking through sickness, grieving in heartache and loss, disappointed in unfulfilled longings? It’s hard to see any glory in those realities. Yet, the truth is that glory remains. For the beauty of glory is also found in these hard places if you’re willing to see it. Something beautiful can certainly come out of pain, sorrow and disappointment. Even now, there is glory in your reality. See the beauty, see the glory in where you are now.
“…It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
John 9:3 NASB
It’s the story where the disciples asked Jesus who is to blame, what sin is responsible for the man’s blindness. Jesus’ response brings such freedom, but also something hard to understand. What freedom in knowing that often our struggles are not a result of our own sin, but something quite the opposite. The hard things we walk through our often so that God can be seen and known. I love how The Message says it, “You’re asking the wrong question…Look instead for what God can do...For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light” (John 9:3-5). We too are often missing the point. We desire comfort and happiness but God desires something so much bigger. He desires our wholeness, our intimacy and His glory. It's hard to understand the ways that He does this and hard to see Him through all of the pain. However, we can trust that He is making something beautiful out of us. Yes, He is making something beautiful out of you. There is truly glory in your current reality. Let the works of God be displayed in your life.
May your life echo this cry: "I give it all to you God, trusting that You'll make something beautiful out of me." (Nothing I Hold On To/Climb by Will Reagan)
