Page 5 (1/2)

Join the club, he thought

He wrote: “I’s are so difficult for you now I have time on Friday at 2:30 if you are free”

It’s easy to say the right thing to people most of the time, because they have such ordinary proble them, but if they were in the position to hear everyone else’s innermost fears, they’d see it was all very commonplace

But there are those brief, transcendent y of the world seems to be in harmony, and we’re transported outside of norh the rest of your life powered by those tiny glimpses of the divine

His el It caes The way his hair fell onto his face The way hewith his hips The absolute perfection of his face How shaking his hand ned It wasn’t lust, he told hiain It wasn’t about sex It was transcendent It was spiritual

The transcendent power of beauty Mo beauty What did the Bible say about that? Most of the passages he ed to find did not have much to say about the appreciation of beauty

“Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor” Ezekiel 28:17

“Do not let your adorning be external” 1 Peter 3:3

If he wanted to write about the dangers of being seduced by beauty, there was a lot of material there People must need more reassurance that beauty doesn’t matter than reinforcement that it does The transcendent power of beauty—deep aesthetic appreciation—surely the Bible had soood to say about that?

The Song of Solo Ah ha! “Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful!” Good start But then it went on: “Your eyes are doves behind your veil Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have coht Powerful beautytheme

Forget Soloazed out the

Why was this so difficult? He re and full of love for Christ He was full of passion and wanted to tell everyone the Good News He had had no proble it back to Christ’s love It had flowed out of hih being faithful made him different As if he had discovered Christ hiance of youth was completely ordinary too

So how could he write that? How could he e of being not special, but ordinary? He thought he just ht lines to build the sermon around when Julie knocked softly and poked her head around the door “Paul?” The thought disappeared like the traces of a drea

“I thought I told you not to interruptat her as soon as he said it

“I’o ho in the pavilion, and I think he is drunk I was afraid to go up to him”