Add to the Beauty

"We come with beautiful secrets.
We come with purposes written on our hearts; written on our souls.
We come to every good morning with possibilities only we can hold.
Redemption comes in strange places. Small spaces calling out the best of who we are.
And I want to add to the beauty. To tell a different story.
Shine with Your light that's burning up inside."
~Sara Groves
A few years ago, sitting near the front row in a concert hall, Sara Groves sang these lyrics. And I have been forever changed. She told this story of a lone man, sitting on a chair in the midst of war and bombing during the Croatian-Serbian conflict, playing his cello while the buildings around him were being blasted, crumbling to the ground. He played his instrument despite the ash piling up at his feet. He played because he wanted to be a protest for beauty in the midst of chaos.
Sometimes this world feels like it's at war. I mean, literally speaking, war is an active verb in many places in the world at this moment. Afghanistan, Iraq, tribal warfare in Africa, deforestation in the Amazon leading to the destruction of native people. But I also feel like it's more than dropping bombs and firing weapons. The war is seen in the eyes of a homeless woman holding up a sign that says "Money for food & medicine" and war is seen in the stomach grown overripe in a child starving for nutrition. War can even be as close to us as our sharp tone or impatience with our spouses or children.
In the midst of chaos, of a housing market downturn and an unforgiving job market and an unfair and much-too-expensive health care system, I want to be a protest for beauty. I want to protest with my life. To tell a different story. A story of a God who loves us enough to give us the peace that transcends understanding. A story of a marriage that, despite the ebb and flow of romantic love, flourishes because of perseverance and the commitment to become a better person. A story of a mom who sometimes has to sacrifice her desires to create and shape a family. For that homeless woman whose heart is broken, I want to provide for her the things she needs. For the hungry kids, I want to give them food.
I want to add to the beauty to tell a better story.