Who can define the beauty of a soul?

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul. – Saint Augustine.

In each of us there is a beauty that is undefinable. How can we as mere mortals describe the beauty of a soul? It would be like trying to describe the grace of the voice of Josh Groban or what gives life and passionate depth to the voice of Susan Boyle or to say we understand the glorious love of God that comes from Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Shine that beautiful light of God within you to hurting hearts who so much need to be loved, heard and understood.

Ask yourself this question today. How can I best show the beauty of my soul? That is the question I believe St. Augustine asked each day as he sought God’s strength. How else could any of us explain the beauty and grace that flows from his writing?

As you get alone with your Lord ask Him, be open and real with Him about what is hindering you from shining your light. If there is anger, bitterness and a feeling of burnout in your soul and life, let your Lord hear it. He’s the God of the universe. He can take all the anger and the pain you could ever heap upon Him.

In my own life I have been angry at God. For many years I possessed a bitterness of soul. I would rage against God. I would yell at Him that He gave me a life of seeming never-ending torment with a journey of abuse from my schizophrenic father, misjudgements of my character, ongoing health challenges and a journey of poverty, which attacked my sense of self-worth.

Many years ago a friend who I still hold close to my heart said in a voice of judgement and ridicule, “Kevin, are you ever going to work?”

Where was her light that day? Sadly, it was buried beneath an inner destructive torture that she felt God had been unfair to her. As her marriage had died its slow and agonizing death, her anger made her lash out. I know her well.  She is a woman of an inner beauty and grace. She didn’t mean to be used by the Enemy to speak darkness into my life and soul. It was her pain speaking.

When you shine the pure and loving light of Christ expect that you will get rejection from some people. As a young minister in training I shone that light. To those who had compromised their calling, I was an irritant. I was to be gotten rid of because I dared to stand for my Lord. I didn’t believe then nor will I ever that we are called to a meek and mild passive Christianity.

The Christ I know with all of my heart and mind spoke His mind. He was not in a popularity contest. He didn’t need His ego boosted by adoring fans, who would tell Him how wonderful His sermons were. The Christ with the rough hard-working hands of the carpenter’s son didn’t give people what their itching ears wanted to hear.

The Lord of our hearts and minds shone a light that many rejected. Hear with your heart the prophet Isaiah speaking to you through The Message.

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him

Isaiah 53:3-6

If Christ that messenger of truth and love endured pain that we find difficult to look at in all of its magnitude, let that be a comfort to us. When we shine the light of Christ within us though we will be despised and rejected for it, let us also realize this truth. Many hurting hearts crave that light.

Today, in our prayers, let us take time to thank those who shone and continue to shine Christ’s light to us. Then, let us all shine that undefinable glowing light to others.

The peace and abounding joy of Christ be with you today as  you shine your light.

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