Finding Beauty Through The Mess

Life is complicated and messy. Sometimes it feels like we spend a lot of our lives looking forward to when things will be better, or easier, or different in some way. 

 In an awesome song called Forest Fire, sung by one of my favorite bands, Book On Tapeworm, the chorus says:    

"Should you find it hard to live

Remember this

If everything is beautiful

Then nothing is"

It is the messy aspects of life that help us to appreciate the beautiful ones. Nothing makes you thankful for good health like coming out of an illness. If all we had was sunshine, would we really understand how wonderful it can be? Or is it the rain and the storms that make the sun more beautiful? If we didn't have clouds, sunsets would be boring. Having opposition in our lives gives us a greater capacity for joy. It stretches us, and changes us, and teaches us who we really are.

I am a music person. Music gives me so much that can't be adequately expressed in any other way. Jason Mraz sings a song called 93 Million Miles. I came across that song when one of my boys was getting ready to head off to college and move away from home, and it spoke to me. I always think of my son when I hear it, but it also speaks to me in other ways. In the song, the singer talks about advice from his parents about life. In the second verse he states:

"Oh, my my how beautiful, 

Oh my irrefutable father,

He told me, 'Son sometimes it may seem dark

But the absence of the light is a necessary part

Just know, you're never alone

You can always come back home'"

And suddenly that song was transformed for me, from a song about a boy leaving home for the first time, to a religious song. I could picture my Father telling me, "Sometimes it may seem dark, but the absence of the light is a necessary part" and that I can always come back to Him.

The absence of light teaches us to appreciate the light. It teaches us to seek after light. It teaches us to shine a light for others. Difficult times in our life help us to appreciate our blessings. They help us to seek better things. They give us compassion for others, and a desire to be a blessing in other peoples' lives.

Can you imagine a world where the sun is always shining? Where there is no pain or sorrow? Don't we all sometimes wish for a world like that? What would a world like that cost us? Without the pain and sorrows of life, we could never truly appreciate all that we have. There would be less depth to our love without the possibility of loss. So while it may not seem beautiful in the moment, if we really look for it, we can find beauty in the mess.

I hope that we will take time to think about some of the difficult experiences we have had, and ask ourselves how those things helped us to grow, and how they changed us and made us better people. And if you are in the middle of one of those experiences, hold on. It won't last forever. The light is coming.