// Bella//

“ill faut soffrir pour être belle”

Beauty does not come without suffering. More on that later, but in order to get to the point, a little background story is necessary.

Next Wednesday, one of my fiancé and I’s good friends is traveling to SE Asia for six weeks with a couple of other gentleman to look sex slavery right in the face. When he first told us that he was going, I freaked out a little. I’ve always thought that sex slavery was one of the most interesting, scary, disgusting, and fascinating topics that is out there. I could use many other words to describe my emotions and thoughts regarding it, but I’ll refrain.

Anyway, so since he told us that he was going to go, he has been updating us on the way that travel plans develop, what exactly he and his team will be doing there, and so on. The name of their blog is called Beauty Creates Beauty, and recently they did a promo video asking 3 specific questions: What do you think is beautiful? Who do you think in your life is beautiful? What makes YOU beautiful?

Since that time, I’ve found that I keep asking myself those questions as I think and pray for their upcoming trip. Recently I came across the beautiful French quote above, ill faut soffrir pour être belle: beauty does not come without suffering. As I think about that for a moment, I nod my head in agreement. As soon as I heard this quote I was flooded by a wave of emotion by my past, a dear friend’s present, and the future that will be seen through Henry, Adam, and Kyle, and Phil’s eyes.

I think that it is a very Biblical concept to say that beauty comes from dust. The beauty that was created in this world was created, by God, ex nihilo, out of nothing. In asking the question, “what do you think is beautiful?”, I found that my answer to this question lies in the actions of the four men that are traveling halfway across the world to love on people who may not understand that they have dignity and that they are beautiful. I think that beauty is found all around us, all the time. I think beauty is masked in the rags and the dirty things that have been befuddled by the Fall.

I think that beauty is found in each of us, because we are all created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). I think that beauty is developed in the midst of the darkest days our lives. I think that beauty exists purely in us and around us through God’s creation, but that beauty is developed in the midst of struggle. I believe that beauty is found through hope, perseverance, faith, grace and LOVE. I believe that beauty is sharing that with other people who haven’t grasped it yet.

This idea of beauty born of struggle leads me to the next thought-provoking question: “who do you think in your life is beautiful?” There are many people in my life that I think are beautiful people. There are many people that I have encountered, especially in the last seven months of my life, that I think are beautiful people. There are many things that make them this way … but there is ONE that sticks out to me.

One of my dearest friends in the entire world has overcome in the last seven months than most people in the world will ever experience in their entire LIFE. This person has wrestled with many things in their lifetime, but the situations presented in the last months easily tops them all. The beauty that is in my friend has shouted to me in the midst of my friend’s pain. My friend knows joy, my friend knows peace, and my friend knows pain. My friend is beautiful.

My friend is beautiful because in the midst of these seven months God has become real. The view of God prior to these months was not a small one, nor was it one to be taken for granted, but the way that the Lord has opened my friend’s mind and heart is one that I have never seen before and is not one that should be overlooked or downplayed. My God’s love for my friend has proven itself each week that my friend has needed it and in the most miraculous and creative ways. God loves my friend that is quite obvious. It is so beautiful.

My friend is beautiful because of courage. My friend is beautiful because of belief. My friend is beautiful because of faith. My friend is beautiful because of the actions that are done in order to do the things that most will never do. My dear friend, you are beautiful. You know who you are.

In reflecting on my friend’s life and all that is summed up in it to this point, it never fails to make me ask myself what I am doing with my life. This leads to the third and final question, “What makes YOU beautiful?” I hesitate to answer this question, because I do not want to be seen as one who thinks more of herself than she is. However, I have a story, and my story has created beauty out of suffering.

I have written in many different fashions about the last two years of my life, but if there is one thing that I know, it is that there is a reason for everything. As sadistic and strange as it sounds, I can honestly say that I am glad that incredible pain was thrust upon me, because it revealed to me how much sanctification could truly happen. It took a cliché, normal relationship with God and changed it … forever.

Beauty is born out of suffering. I am convinced of it. God creates out of nothing in order to prove to us that HE is GOD and that we are not. I believe that in our lives and in this natural world that it is impossible for us to do so—that is for God and he continues to bring us into the caves of our lives so that He can do a miraculous work for us, through us, and in us.

This, therefore, means that our beauty is not about us. Our beauty is meant to be shared. It means that we are not to hold onto our beauty, but we are to give it away in every shape and form—in whatever way we please. But the minute we hold on to it, it turns into something quite different and less attractive.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So you tell me … What do you think is beautiful? Who in your life is beautiful? What makes YOU beautiful?