One of my favorite quotes has always been one by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross:
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
I love the idea of brokenness birthing beauty, not because it sounds nice and “don’t we all just wish it were that way” but it is in complete alignment with the truth! I mean, let’s be real here, how can we think we can declare the grace if God if we try to live lives that show only a facade that is in no way in need of grace?! Messiness begs for grace. Those who have seen the messy and turn to receive grace are beautiful for it.
But it is not until now that I find I have a problem with this quote. My problem is with the qualifying, “…and have found their way out of the depths”. Are not those still in the midst of battle still beautiful?! All of life begs some degree of overcoming- its a constant state for humanity- if we walk through one fire, we will no sooner have been refined in that one portion until we find outsells once again feeling the singing heat of another flame.
Life is the grime. Those who face the grime are tenaciously stunning! God’s power is made wholly complete in the midst of weakness, not when it is overcome! He begins the overcoming while we are weak. He gives life the moment we choose to take the first step in trusting that his might will pull through, he doesn’t just grant full life afterward as a reward for our conquering. We can only conquer because of him, we can only overcome because of him, and our lives have any semblance of beauty only because of him.
Those who are most beautiful are always the ones who have faced the hideous and treacherous. But the beauty Is all the more radiant when they are still in muck of things and have no yet overcome. Beauty is carrying in oneself the belief that all will be overcome, even if it is only once the Lord comes to take us home. Living out that profound belief in the midst of admitted failures and flaws is the most beautiful feature anyone can possess.
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