While traveling home from a job in the panhandle of Florida, I was listening to my ever-present and trusty companion, my iPod. As my thumb was a blur on the click wheel, I happened to stop on and listen to a song by Stevie Nick called Trouble in Shangrai-La. Now before you condemn me for my choice of music, at least have the good grace to read my post, leave a comment then condemn me for my taste in music. Deal?
One line of the song said this:
"You can consume all the beauty in the room, baby. I know you can. I've seen you do it."
No matter how many times I listen to this song, that phrase always strikes me and always sets me to thinking down the same well-traveled path.
Am I like that?
Do I come waltzing into a room and, like a black hole in space, suck all the life and beauty from it?
Does the chatter quiet down, gazes avert and subjects change?
Do smiles seem genuine or contrived?
Does my personality overwhelm others and change the chemistry and makeup in the room?
Do the lights of others dim upon my arrival? (And by that I don't mean that my light is brighter or better).
We all know people like that. An old room-mate, a high-school acquaintance, a relative or fellow church member. It seems like they have that unique ability to blanket a room with pessimism, uncharitable comments and despair.
Or am I like a supernova or exploding star, expanding the universe of that particular room, filling it with life, conversation, brightness, laughter, hopefulness and the light of Christ.
I am, after all, called a "light of the world." Are others blinded by the light in me or burned by the flame in my life and want to snuff it out? Or are they drawn to it like a "moth to the flame."
Are others consumed by the resident love of God in my heart or are they consumed by my pettiness, gossip and prejudice?
I don't know that I have the answers.
Sometimes I feel like I am a beacon of truth and righteousness, the image of the Most High stamped on my visage. Sometimes I believe that the flawed and tarnished fallen me is on display, like a side show freak. People are simultaneously drawn and repelled. What will it take for them to see past the exterior to the place of peace that resides in my heart?
We all love the consuming power of a masterpiece of art or an enveloping cocoon of a brilliant musical score. We are moved to recognize the hand of the Almighty, whether or not that is intent of the artist.
All I can do is pray that my nature will be changed so that I will not be one who is consuming beauty but rather a purveyor of the beauty that consumes. That beauty is the love of Christ.
"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 NKJV
More Beast than Beauty.
Traveler
