Autumn is here! It’s my favorite season of the year — cooler evenings, autumn breezes, the change of colors, apple pickin’, hot cider, fall festivals and the fair, Yankee Candles’ Autumn Harvest, evenings by the fire, and of course everything and anything pumpkin! Happy Fall Y’all! Things just feel fresh and new to me in autumn. Autumn inspires and energizes me. This year I’m reading through The Voice translation of the Bible. I love reading Scripture in a translation other than my normal, “go to” preference. It makes familiar passages come to life in a new way.
Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy. —Philippians 4:8 (The Voice)
There is a particular phrase in this verse that resonates with me —Beauty and Truth.
Yes! Beauty and Truth should occupy my thoughts. There is much that is ugly and false. Our world is full of brokenness and pain. Authenticity, transparency and disclosure are not popular words in our culture. But God’s Word brings hope, healing and light in a dark world. When I fill my mind with the beauty of who He is and the truths of His Word, my mind is renewed and my life transformed. Jesus makes all things new. Jesus brings hope and healing to the brokenness and pain. He brings light where there is darkness. He is beauty. He is truth.
Therefore, if anyone is united with the Anointed One, that person is a new creation. The old life is gone—and see—a new life has begun! All of this is a gift from our Creator God, who has pursued us and brought us into a restored and healthy relationship with Him through the Anointed. —2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Voice)
God is always making things new. But, am I noticing the beauty in the broken? Am I aware of what is being made new?
Or am I so consumed with the things of the world and the brokenness and disappointment that surrounds me, that I fail to see it?
I want my life to be characterized by Beauty and Truth. Seeking to be aware of the beauty that surrounds me in God’s creation. Seeking to know more of the beauty of who God is. Seeking to know Truth. Live Truth. Share Truth.
Seek to uncover the beauty and truth that surrounds you even when its hard to see beauty in the broken. Let’s encourage one another to fill our hearts and minds with Beauty and Truth that will not just inspire, but also transform our attitudes and our perspectives.
What new thing is God showing you this season?
©2015 Susan Cady, susancady.com
