beauty for ashes

I am at a conference in San Jose, CA.  This morning I got up and did my usual routine, went to a coffee shop (they have a Peet’s here, which is really cool!).  I sat there and read my Bible and the book I am currently working through by one of my heroes Dan Allendar called To be Told.

In the book I had just read about God’s redeeming work amidst the chaos and challenges of life.  I sat there and pondered the story God had written in Mike Conan for a while.  Then one of the strangest things happened.  A woman came in she must have been 30 to 40.  She was wearing a rain-soaked oversized sweatshirt with sleeves warn dark from obvious lack of washing.  She had on baggy sweatpants that were also covered in dirt.  Her neck was filled with dirt, her hair had not been washed in so long that it looked almost like dread locks, she had obviously been living on the street for a long time.  She stood in the middle of Peet’s coffee house and just stared out the window for 15 minutes.

Yet, amidst the outer garmets that were worn and dirty and a skin filled with dirt and a hair covered in dirt was unbelievable beauty.  The kind of beauty that would attract all kinds, women and men were staring at the contrast.  Her eyes were beautiful blue, her face was nearly perfectly proportioned and even with her hair dirty she looked like she could be on the cover of a magazine. 

It made me wonder about her life.  What had happened to her that had caused her to be on the street.  Had her beauty been so attractive from an early age that someone had abused her?  Had her mom become jealous of her beauty and turned her back on her?  Had everyone assumed that because she was so beautiful that she didn’t need love and friendship?  What was the beginning of the chain of events that had landed her in this vulnerable position?

As I still think about it,  she is tiny view into all of us.  Each of us are made in God’s image, given unique beauty and passions from our creator that are powerfully unleashed through the gospel.  The core of the gospel is Jesus taking us in and cleaning us up and restoring our radiating beauty, by taking on our shame and ugliness.

I did not sit down with this woman, because I don’t feel that is the right ministry for a married man away from his family.  But, I did find my soul rejuvenated and restored to my core calling: to share the power of the gospel with broken and dirty people, like me, who desperately need the healing, cleansing and renewing that only Jesus can give.  It grieves my soul that I am serving in a denomination that instead of preaching the gospel to the broken and abused people of the world has declared that it is O.K. and good.   We have taken away the power of redemption when we declare things good that God says are broken.   

Advertisement

~ by pastormc on June 4, 2011.