I've been borrowing my wife's car the last couple of days.  She and I have different tastes in music.  By that I mean she likes listening to things that are a little more mellow in general than I do.  The CD she has in there right now is by one of her favorites, Sara Groves.  

There are a couple of lyrics that really struck me from the title track "Add to the Beauty".  The title of this blog happens to be one of them.

Grace: An invitation to be beautiful

There would seem to be more to it at the beginning.  However when you think of what it means to be restored/forgiven, I think this really paints a great picture.  We need to be healed, to be returned to God's image, to what He had in mind in the first place. 

We come with purposes written on our hearts, written on our souls

Simply put, if God knows the number of hairs on our head, you think he didn't have an idea for us when we were created?   I had to rewatch Chariots of Fire several months ago because of one quote: "I believe that God made me for a purpose... but He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure."

I want to shine with the light that's burning up inside

I love the visual of "burning up inside".  And really given that how can we be silent?

And I want to add to the beauty to tell a better story

I've had the following as my status on IM for a couple of days.  "SPOILER ALERT: God wins".  This was prompted by a discussion with folks about how we kept losing battles in America.  "Look at the election" was one comment.  "Look at how we are backsliding" was another.  Before someone goes off here, let me clarify something.  I'm not saying those things (and others) aren't happening.  But look at where the focus is.  The focus is on what we need to do to win the battles for God.  God doesn't NEED us to win battles.  God will win the battle(s) with or without us.  Whether we win or lose a particular battle should not touch our faith.  If God wants to win the battle He will.  We just need to make sure we pick God's battles.  And in the end, beauty is added to the story because He allowed us to help.