Beauty in the imperfections

I recently heard Lysa TerKeurst say “Not everyone can relate to victory and success.  But people connect with hardship and struggle.  They can relate to vulnerability. ”

I think we want to connect with people in success, as that is where we want to go. We are disillusioned that those we admire found success without any struggle.  They share the victory; rarely do we see the perseverance, trials and valleys they journeyed through.  It is only through overcoming that we find success, yet few people feel comfortable sharing from that place of failure they journeyed through to success.

Walking along the beach this little object caught my eye.  I didn’t know what it was, only that it looked interesting. It reminded me of the sketching on Indian artwork, a Greek sketching from a pot or something out of a Tim Burton creation.

After closer inspection it was just a petrified pod from a nearby tree.  Had I picked it up, it would have crumbled in my hand, but in the picture I could capture what I saw.  What was once a lovely green pod, was now deteriorating. However, I found beauty in its imperfection.

I kept going back to the picture after taking it.  Thinking about my own imperfections.  Although I know they are visible, I do try to hide them.  I don’t like to appear vulnerable or expose my faults.

The anxious anticipation that someone will see through who I think people need me to be.

The thoughts that no one can possibly relate to where I have been, the things I have seen, and done.

Can people really accept me as I truly am?

Yet there are times,
that I will share from my imperfections.
If I can help someone

with something I have been through,
a lesson from a storm I have already weathered,
I do.

I have found in the sharing, that most people who can relate, look at my imperfections with interest.  They don’t see the ugliness of where I have been, but in the beauty that I am still standing.  They don’t see the broken spots, but the picture of what God has shaped during the storm.  They find hope in knowing someone else has been, at least in part, where they are at now.

In the weathering of the storms, the trials of time, and the journey of life this little pod created an interest in a passerby.  I don’t know it’s story.  I can only relate to its vulnerability displayed for all to see.  Some will walk by and not notice it, others will take notice but see nothing more than a decaying pod, but others will take the time to look and see the beauty in the imperfections.

Our lives are the same.  Some people will not care where we have been.  Even if we want they to see us, they will over look us.  Others will take notice, but still judge. They will see only the weathered life.  However, it is for the ones that take the time to look past the imperfections that our life will speak, and for them we must risk being vulnerable.