What Is Beauty's Message For You? The Origin of RL4B
The concept of RL4B was coined by Methodist pastor Dave McConnell in a sermon on November 24, 2013. He proposed the image of a secret agency where the members received coded messages that were hidden in plain sight, visible only to those who went looking.
These messages are Beauty.
I believe this is Divine communication, a way to reflect God's love for us. But my non-Christian friends and family can be secret agents, too, knowing that beauty often defies explanation or scientific examination and connects us to something beyond ourselves.
What do you find beautiful? There are many common, more obvious examples like sunsets or rainbows, but as we learn to see (or hear) beauty on a deeper level, we can find ourselves entranced by the most ordinary things like plants that give us fruits and vegetables or an ant colony preparing for winter.
Perhaps the most powerful force of beauty is what it can do or say to us. Jonathon Edwards, an eighteenth century preacher, asserted that if you pay more attention to the beauty around you, you'll pay less attention to yourself and will be less likely to fall into selfish ways.
What would happen if the next time you're angry with a co-worker, friend, or spouse, you look around you for a sign of beauty? Maybe you spot a framed photograph of a child laughing, or you listen to one of your favorite songs and marvel at the magic of translating music into a digital recording. Maybe you just smile at the sun shining through a tree that makes dancing shadows on the sidewalk below.
Beauty can whisper to you, Slow down, you are safe, you are loved.
Expect to see beauty. Be prepared to receive messages around every corner. Don't miss what the Universe is trying to tell you.
A couple of my doorways from this week:
These messages are Beauty.
I believe this is Divine communication, a way to reflect God's love for us. But my non-Christian friends and family can be secret agents, too, knowing that beauty often defies explanation or scientific examination and connects us to something beyond ourselves.
What do you find beautiful? There are many common, more obvious examples like sunsets or rainbows, but as we learn to see (or hear) beauty on a deeper level, we can find ourselves entranced by the most ordinary things like plants that give us fruits and vegetables or an ant colony preparing for winter.
Perhaps the most powerful force of beauty is what it can do or say to us. Jonathon Edwards, an eighteenth century preacher, asserted that if you pay more attention to the beauty around you, you'll pay less attention to yourself and will be less likely to fall into selfish ways.
What would happen if the next time you're angry with a co-worker, friend, or spouse, you look around you for a sign of beauty? Maybe you spot a framed photograph of a child laughing, or you listen to one of your favorite songs and marvel at the magic of translating music into a digital recording. Maybe you just smile at the sun shining through a tree that makes dancing shadows on the sidewalk below.
Beauty can whisper to you, Slow down, you are safe, you are loved.
Expect to see beauty. Be prepared to receive messages around every corner. Don't miss what the Universe is trying to tell you.
A couple of my doorways from this week:
- I found some old CDs from over 10 years ago, so I decided to import the songs on my computer. I spent the next half an hour listening (and dancing in my chair) to music that brought back joyful memories.
- My nephews love animals, so when a young robin perched outside their window, they came as close to the glass as possible and watched in awe as they viewed the bird up close.
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