Appreciating Beauty

I’ve been posting pictures online recently, just because they’re beautiful. No, that’s not right. I choose the picture that I post just because it’s beautiful, but I post it as an act of war.

You may have noticed a spirit of fear in the air, and especially in social media. It’s come out of hiding recently.

I rather hate that spirit; I hate what it does to the victims it affects, I hate the lies it tells, I hate how much it opposes the goodness of my Father and his kingdom. It’s a deadly enemy.

On the other hand, I’ve observed a couple of effective weapons against fear. One of them is beauty.

• When people appreciate beauty, they are less fearful, at least for a time. It’s true that fear makes it more difficult to appreciate beauty, so multiple doses may be required.

• Social media has become something of a steady stream of fear recently. So when beauty interrupts that stream, it loosens fear’s hold for a moment.

• One of my mentors is teaching me about where to put my attention. He wrote, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” [Philippians 4:8]

First, he’s really smart, and that’s enough reason to do what he says.

But I’ve noticed that there are good reasons for putting our attention on admirable and praiseworthy things: it’s good for us. We’re better people when our attention is on pure and lovely things.

On top of that, we’re better friends, we’re more able to help hurting people, when our attention is  on true and noble things. And oh boy, aren’t there a whole lot of hurting folks right now.

So yeah. I like posting beauty. I like looking for beauty. I like appreciating beauty.

And I like the fact that every moment that I enjoy beauty is a moment that the spirit of fear becomes irrelevant to me. I like that a lot.

And if you want to power this weapon up to the next level, check this out: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” [Hebrews 12:2a].

Gaze on him for a bit. Remember what he’s done. Think about what he’s done for you, for your friends. Heck, watch the Chosen show. Heck, just meditate on that passage, Hebrews 12. That’ll kick the spirit of fear right in the teeth.