If I asked you to name something beautiful about where you live, what would you say? I’m in southern Colorado so sun and mountains come to mind for me. Also my wife keeps the house all jungly with plants everywhere and occasionally a sleeping child will drool in the most adorable way.
Although I don’t always live out this conviction, I’m convinced that beauty, it’s creation, pursuit and appreciation, has great consequence for our lives as Christians.
Brian Zahnd asserts, “If the church in America is to recover any relevance, it won’t be through a public emphasis on the true (though there is a place for Christian apologetics), and it won’t be through a public emphasis on the good (though there is a place for Christian ethics), but through a public emphasis on the long-neglected third prime virtue — the beautiful.
I love that. This applies for us in how we think and talk about Muslims. Without diminishing the reality that we must question and consider the truth and goodness of Islam, it might do us well to amplify our understanding and enjoyment of the beauty found in Muslims and Muslim culture.
I drool like a sleeping child remembering desserts hospitably offered to me by the hand of Muslims from Turkey to Jordan to Malaysia. You may have similar experiences.
I am also hugely blessed by the these two videos on Instagram (Part 1, Part 2) in which Muslims share the origins of their Eid clothes. To see people from various cultures in their best clothes on their happiest days. . .beautiful. (And worth quickly signing up for an Instagram account you may never use again!)
Too many of us (I’m looking at me!) too often think of Muslims as a problem. Join me in leaning toward thinking of them as beautiful people, designed to help embody and bring about the beautiful kingdom of God.
If you’ve ever worked hard in ministry, vocationally, on a mission trip or even leading a small group with too many EGR’s*, this week’s YouTube video is for you. (If you get some value from it, please subscribe to my fledgeling channel. Thank you.) *Extra grace required!
EWI News:
from Shane's Muslim Connect
If I asked you to name something beautiful about where you live, what would you say? I’m in southern Colorado so sun and mountains come to mind for me. Also my wife keeps the house all jungly with plants everywhere and occasionally a sleeping child will drool in the most adorable way.
Although I don’t always live out this conviction, I’m convinced that beauty, it’s creation, pursuit and appreciation, has great consequence for our lives as Christians.
Brian Zahnd asserts, “If the church in America is to recover any relevance, it won’t be through a public emphasis on the true (though there is a place for Christian apologetics), and it won’t be through a public emphasis on the good (though there is a place for Christian ethics), but through a public emphasis on the long-neglected third prime virtue — the beautiful.
I love that. This applies for us in how we think and talk about Muslims. Without diminishing the reality that we must question and consider the truth and goodness of Islam, it might do us well to amplify our understanding and enjoyment of the beauty found in Muslims and Muslim culture.
I drool like a sleeping child remembering desserts hospitably offered to me by the hand of Muslims from Turkey to Jordan to Malaysia. You may have similar experiences.
I am also hugely blessed by the these two videos on Instagram (Part 1, Part 2) in which Muslims share the origins of their Eid clothes. To see people from various cultures in their best clothes on their happiest days. . .beautiful. (And worth quickly signing up for an Instagram account you may never use again!)
Too many of us (I’m looking at me!) too often think of Muslims as a problem. Join me in leaning toward thinking of them as beautiful people, designed to help embody and bring about the beautiful kingdom of God.
If you’ve ever worked hard in ministry, vocationally, on a mission trip or even leading a small group with too many EGR’s*, this week’s YouTube video is for you. (If you get some value from it, please subscribe to my fledgeling channel. Thank you.) *Extra grace required!