Exodus Cry - The Prayer Movement to End Slavery

INTRO

I wrote this article about a year ago, but believe it is relevant just as much today as the day I wrote it.

PROPHETS OF BEAUTY

By Benji Nolot

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. – Phil. 4:8

A friend recently said to me, “We humans have an obsession with bad news.” I had never consciously acknowledged that before, but immediately I knew he was right. Just a few days later I was catching up with some folks I hadn’t seen in a while. As I inquired about mutual acquaintances, every response was colored with negative reports. Had I not been pondering my obsession with bad news, I may not have even noticed these responses as being anything other than normal. I realized how conditioned we are to draw attention to the misfortunes, disappointments, failures, and trials of others. We are curiously attentive to the sensational news that more often than not concerns pain, tragedy, or loss.

Our culture serves as a continual reminder of how fallen we are. Last week I was at the gym when a television flashed an urgent news message reporting the drug-related death of young actor Heath Ledger. I noticed that the songs played overhead while I work out are often by musicians who have either committed suicide or died tragically from a drug overdose. Driving home I was assaulted with more reminders of evil on billboard after billboard: one advertising a reward for a wanted criminal, his face largely displayed across the billboard; another advertising a local “adult video” store. It seems that everywhere I look images are flooding my mind with darkness.

In a world filled with darkness, the voices that clamor for our attention are loud and many. They come through emails, media, co-workers, family, and friends. I feel constantly beckoned to take notice of the latest story of child abduction, rape, or murder. I feel pressure to give my attention to whatever tragedy most recently occurred, whatever shocking news there is to hear. These are more than distant voices, they are invasive. I have personally lost three friends to the tragic devastation of drugs and alcohol, one to suicide, and another to a violent stabbing. Through prayer, I have felt a degree of the pain and desperation of those trapped in sex slavery. Even the alarm system on our home reminds me of the danger present just beyond our front door. I find myself tempted to be suspicious of everyone and trust no one. All of these things paint an awful picture of an ugly, fallen world, a world where my preoccupation with original sin causes me to lose sight of original beauty.

In a recent meeting with a worship team from IHOP I reported an answer to our prayers for a town called Svay Pak in Cambodia. Fourteen young girls were rescued from traffickers shortly after two weeks of intense intercession. They now have an opportunity to be placed in a Christian recovery home to live and receive restorative ministry. This home has been very successful in their efforts because, by their own admission, they recognize that Christ is the true Healer. I began to share with our worship team, “…imagine where these girls will be under this type of care in six months, a year from now.” I was suddenly overcome with emotion and had to stop, tears welling up in my eyes. A very foreign emotion powerfully struck my heart – the feeling of beauty. I felt the beauty of God shine on me, the understanding of His ability to restore, His desire to give beauty for ashes, His pleasure in turning our mourning into dancing, our sorrow into joy. The testimonies I had heard about the lives of so many young girls who have been rescued from sex slavery and restored through Christ began to flood my mind. I actually believed they could laugh again, dream again, dance, play, and just be children. I realized that I had become overwhelmed with evil, and that the experience of beauty had become totally foreign.

While heaven weeps, heaven also rejoices – continually. Because somewhere, somebody is finally surrendering their life to God, someone is experiencing the heavenly Father’s embrace for the first time, a young woman is being rescued from a brothel, someone’s innocence is being restored, a child is being born, a mother is nursing. Though you would never hear about it in the evening news, God is working, and restoring, and redeeming, at this very moment. In a world drowned in darkness, I must continually fix my eyes upon the Father who is ever bent over humanity with His arms open, patiently waiting and inviting us, His broken children, into His eternal embrace. He is the Father who has felt evil more deeply than we ever could, who has lost more children, cried more tears, and suffered more tragedy. He sees everything; nothing is kept secret from Him. Yet His beauty surrounds Him. He continually expresses Himself in hope, forgiveness, love, patience, care, compassion, tenderness, freedom, and life. He is “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” He invites me to enter into His beauty, to be transformed by His glory, to embody His nature. Yet, I find it much easier to become cynical, a prophet of doom.

Henri Nouwen accurately defined the condition I am so tempted to embrace. “Cynics seek darkness wherever they go. They point always to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes. They call trust naïve, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental…They consider themselves realists who see reality for what it truly is and who are not deceived by ‘escapist emotions.’ But in belittling God’s joy, their darkness only calls forth more darkness.” As a child of light who struggles with the inclination to be a prophet of doom, “I try so hard in so many ways to convince others of how evil the evil really is. How intense the judgment will really be.” (Return of the Prodigal: A Story of Homecoming)

We are not called to deny the darkness, but we are also not called to live in it. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). Overcoming evil with good challenges me to step beyond my propensity to be a prophet of doom, to become instead a prophet of beauty. While Isaiah fiercely confronted the social evils of his time, he was nevertheless a prophet of beauty. He dared to describe God as a bridegroom rejoicing over His bride, as a mother who will never forget her child, and a redeemer whose love drove Him to die an innocent death for the sake of the guilty. He saw the zeal of God to overcome evil by the power of His Spirit. He saw the God whose glory shines bright in the midst of deep darkness.

Jesus was a prophet of beauty. Rather than find curious fascination in untimely death, He raised the dead. Rather than bemoan the plight of the hungry, He multiplied food for them. Rather than relegate issues of social justice to human rights organizations, He healed the brokenhearted, set the captives free, and delivered all who were oppressed by the devil. In the hour of His greatest crisis when He may have been tempted to turn cynical, to curse rather than bless, He cried out, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). He pointed the way home for all of humanity. Yes, He wept, but He also hoped, believed, and called forth beauty in the midst of darkness. The power of Jesus’ life wasn’t just that He had a positive outlook, but that He embraced the suffering, absorbed the full scope of human aggression, and shouldered the full penalty due that dark tendency, so that now He can stand triumphantly and call a fractured world out of sin and decay into the glory of His Father, the beautiful God, thus making “all things new!” (Rev. 21:5; 2 Cor. 5:17)

To be a prophet of beauty is first and foremost to see beauty. I am not called to be fascinated by darkness – I am called to overcome it. I am not called to exploit this world – I am called to save it. A prophet of beauty sees the light in the midst of darkness and dares to trust that that light is true and speaks greater volumes than the darkness that surrounds it. A prophet of beauty moves from suspicion, despair, and “realism,” to faith, hope, and love. They move, with the courage of the crucified Lord of Beauty, from observation and speculation to intercession and restoration. There are many prophets of doom, but few prophets of beauty. Moses asked God to show him His glory. The Lord then made His goodness pass before him. David said he would have lost heart had he not believed he would see “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 27:13). I am asking God to show me His beauty in all of its manifestations. I want to be one who is sustained not by self-righteous zeal and heroism but a fascination with the beauty of God. I want to see beyond the mourning to the dancing, beyond the sorrow to the joy, beyond the ashes to the beauty. “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us!” (Ps. 90:17)