Find the Beauty

This world is an incredible place. Full of darkness, yes, but also beauty. In the midst of the worst pains and the worst hell, still light bursts forth in shining color.
I see it everywhere I look. Perhaps my eyes are accustomed to looking for the beauty. When you've known pain as much and as long as I have, sometimes the only thing you can do is strain your eyes and look. Keep looking.
Because as dark as it is, there's light somewhere. Beyond the distant fog, you can just make out the shapes of mountains, of flowers and rivers.
It never looks quite like you'd expect, when the world is so dark. If you're looking for something bright and bold you won't always find it. Sometimes, when the dark is bad enough, you just keep peeling your eyes. You have to. Because the only thing that keeps you going is that streak of light so far in the distance it seems untouchable.
Everything seems too far away when you are in the dark moments.
The only thing you can do is keep walking forward, because you know there is nothing for you behind. And sometimes, you can still find beauty, even in the brokenness. When you look at a flower fading quickly and you can just make out the last bits of color that keep it barely hanging on. When you see a silhouette tree with a beauty that is haunting but it is beauty nevertheless.
Keep walking.
The pain can't last forever. It can't.
Sooner or later you'll stumble and crawl your way along and one day you'll look back to see you're standing on the top of a mountain. No longer is the sun hidden by the daunting, rocky peak, but you can see it, just starting to rise over the horizon.
Behind you there is nothing, all is death and ashes. But before you the sun is rising, and the landscape is lush, green, bubbling and alive-free.
The road is still not safe, still steep and the dirt beneath is loose and uncertain. But here there rests a choice. Either go ahead and face the risk of failure in this new landscape- or go back, where the road is just as unstable, to a place you know is dead and lifeless.
There is beauty and pain no matter where you go. Sometimes it's more obvious, sometimes it isn't. When the beauty isn't obvious, keep looking. It's out there.
When it is obvious, embrace it. Breathe in every life giving second with an unmatched eagerness. Remember it. When you find yourself trapped in the dark once more-remember the joy of light.
It will come again, just keep walking forward.

In Regards to Florida....

I wish we could have 24 hours to just collectively hurt with people, before everyone dashes to their favorite political narratives.

— Brant Hansen

Broken people do broken things that hurt people who sometimes respond in broken ways.

My heart is shattered to hear of what happened in Florida, as I'm sure is true of everyone else. Horrible acts committed against innocent people. And there will be politics to debate, legislation made, many fights to be won down the road.

But not today. Today, can we simply mourn for the tragedy? Forget your ideology and the thoughts rolling through your mind about Islam, the LGBT community, gun legislation.

That fight can be fought another day. But today.... Let your heart grieve. Mourn with those who mourn and comfort the brokenhearted. Christians were never called to somehow fix legislation or win  every argument.

We were called to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). So comfort those who mourn (Isaiah 61). Keep a tight rein on your tongue, for if you speak hard words to those who grieve, it will be taken as poison, even if your intent was medicine. It is better to remain silent and love well than try to speak and have your words be heard caustically and cause strife among your brothers.

Tomorrow the papers will be written and the debate will commence, fed on the fire of our anger and betrayal. Lives lost today will soon be little more than weapons in the hands of politicians, and the people's sorrow wil be twisted to fight for one cause or another. 

But today.... Today we can choose not to fight. We can choose to stand as brothers in the midst of a tragedy that attacked not only a community but a nation. We can let this cause discord and tension, or we can simply come together, not in a stand against an enemy but in a deep, deep sorrow as we mourn for the at least 50 individuals whose lives were ended by a broken, angry man.

And to the families of the dead, I'm sorry. Sorry that a madman killed your sons and daughters. Sorry that we as a nation have taken advantage of murder to prove a point. Sorry that there will be those who scorn your children and brothers and I'm sorry they will say the death was deserved. Your children were people. The murderer still a person. The ones who will not support you because of who your son loved? Still people.

We are only people after all. Whatever label you put on us, whatever organization we claim allegiance to, whatever statistic we become, we are a people of souls and a people of pain, and we've all suffered and we all act out of that suffering. Broken people do broken things, but we can still choose to sit in silence for a moment, not proving a point or pointing a finger; only weeping for this tragedy and sitting with the suffering. It is from the quiet, gentle spirit that the oil of gladness is poured out, and garments of praise can be adorned. This is love, not that we raise ourselves above, but that we become so lowly in spirit that the ones we minister to can see beyond us, past our opinions and our pride, to where their weeping Father, the only True Comforter, waits for them to come.