ISSUE 010: BEAUTY FROM ASHES

Beauty rises from the ashes. Can it be possible?

At the end of a desert journey, after what we think we know has been undone, when our political categories are shattered, and the dream of saving America has run its futile course, we are empty. We are empty like a vast desert landscape at the end of winter.

As the season of cold darkness ends, there’s no denying our change in perspective now. The old habits of motivating out of fear and manipulating with moral anger leave the country desolate. They leave us—the political activists—desolate too.

But the desert snow that once blinded our journey melts, and with it our fear and anger and moral outrage can all melt away too.

The first breath of spring clears the air, and beyond anything we could have imagined, the ice, now melted, gives life to a desert bloom. A valley of death becomes a valley of life.

The story we are telling is upended by beauty.

There may be some who resist the idea of beauty in politics, calling it naïve, foolish, even morally wrong. The truth is we’ve all had a part in the horror of political dysfunction. The incredible news that cannot be contained is we all get to write the story of restoration.

But we aren’t writing this story alone. All of creation is declaring the kindness and strong beauty of the author, crying out for his return.

The old story will smolder and scatter with the dust. Spring returns. We sink deeper into freedom. Beauty rises from the ashes. 

You can read part one of the series on beauty from ashes below.