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2020: A Year of Beauty

2020 is upon us. Let's face it, we all expect this year to be ugly. Violence and unrest are spreading throughout the world. Tribalism of all sorts is on the rise. In America we enter the new year in the midst of a political maelstrom. The President has been impeached in what is potentially the most partisan era of American history since the Civil War, and to top it all off this is an election year. Public discourse on any issue seems to have vanished, and sadly even many Christians seem swept up in the taking of sides and blaming others that has taken hold in our society.

Ugly would be the nice way of saying how we all expect this year to go.

With such ugliness and nastiness comes a unique opportunity: a chance for followers of Christ to let their light shine in this present darkness. We have an opportunity, nay a responsibility, to show the people around us Christ. It is our duty and honor to live out our calling as peacemakers. We are called to be beautiful in a time of ugliness and despair.

Beauty is something our world desperately needs. Beauty, true beauty, brings people together. We see glimpses of it all the time. We see a glimmer of true beauty when we see a work of art or listen to a powerful song. It is that quality that we recognize in things or people as fundamentally good and desirable. The thing about something truly beautiful that is so intriguing is that it points to something beyond itself, something we all desperately need; God.

God is beautiful. I'd even go as far as to say that God is transcendent beauty itself; the very source of all things beautiful and the standard by which we determine beauty. God is desirable. God is good. The truly beautiful things of this world all point to God in their own small ways, each according to their measure. 

As Christians we are called to be beautiful, or full of beauty. This means that we are called to be full of God and constantly pointing the world towards him. This means not getting caught up in the partisan bickering of the politics of our age, but being peacemakers who always look for the truth no matter what side it may be on. It means a willingness to listen, a heart that is open to all people, and a fervent desire share beauty wherever we can.

Instead of letting 2020 be an ugly year full of bickering, hate, and turmoil let us strive to make it a year of goodness, truth, and beauty. As it says in Romans 12:21, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Do not give in to ugliness, but overcome that ugliness with the beauty that points to God.

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