Fierce Beauty Read Online Free Page B

on the backs of my gloves, I noticed the box only a few feet away. Kneeling beside it, I reverently raised its heavy lid and carefully pulled out the book of names. I gently leafed through itstattered pages and found the last entry followed by nothing but white paper.
    Out of His mercy, my heavenly Father had given me one last opportunity to repair the nearly severed bond between my earthly father and me. Though his life ended in horrific despair, he would forever be my daddy. I would always adore him and all he had imparted into my life.
    Feeling again like a nine-year-old, I picked up a pencil and etched on the time-weathered sheet a long overdue letter of love to my dad. And beneath that entry, I wrote a message of deep gratitude to my God.
T HE C ROSSROAD
    We can fight for our way—or submit to His.
    Friend, have you ever found yourself in a similar predicament—perhaps not literally clinging to a vertical sheet of ice, yet so committed to your personal path toward value and satisfaction that you suddenly realized you were on the precipice of death? Our need for self-worth and acceptance stalks each of us like an insatiable predator. And it can take so many forms.
    Through desire or fatigue, some of us have bowed in submission to the distorted, self-serving
yuck
that constantly floods our souls through the media. By glamorous proclamations that we’ll find personal satisfaction and romantic encounters and receive the attention and envy of others, we’re lured into believing the messages we read in books and magazines. We’re pressured to mirror the seductive imagery we see on television and movies. We’re bombarded with catchy tunes and slogans calling us to conform to what we hear on the radio at our offices, schools, or homes. The message, though it varies in delivery, is simply this: if we will just succumb to this world’s standard of beauty, we will have a purpose, we will have value, and we
will
be satisfied.
    Meanwhile, some of us are seduced by the promise of comfort andpleasure from
things
. We accept the world’s view that a higher-paying job, a bigger house, a trendy college, a newer car, and a flashier wardrobe will provide fulfillment. We buy into the narcissistic concept that wealth and possessions are the handholds in our ascent toward happiness.
    Please don’t misunderstand; there’s nothing wrong with wealth by itself. I know many who’ve done incredibly generous things with their financial blessings. Wealth only becomes dangerous when we value and seek it more than God. Unfortunately, this world twists our logic into the belief that we’re somehow
owed
adornments—that money, possessions, beauty, and comfort are our birthright and anything less is simply unfair. We’ve adopted the mentality of a spoiled princess, of self-appointed royalty wearing a crown of entitlement that brings glory to no one but ourselves.
    I can say from experience that choosing a life based on serving oneself simply does not fulfill. It places us outside the life we were meant for, looking in at all that could be. It leaves us feeling empty and alone. Useless. Worthless. Hopeless.
    Stuck.
    It’s at this crossroad, when the life we’ve chosen seems to turn against us, that we are tempted to blame God. Instead, we must
seek
Him.
    Each of us will know times when we’ll ask,
How did it come to this? How did I get to this place of complete paralysis, hanging over what could very well be my ultimate ruin?
The trail of choices by which we come to such a dark place is as unique as every person who reads this book. Yet the answer for each of us is always the same.
    Jesus Christ is the right choice at every crossroad and the answer to every question.
    We worship a Lord who is both fierce and beautiful—fierce in the way He hates injustice and sin and fights on our behalf; beautiful in who He is and the way He shows us grace, mercy, and love. As believers, we’re called to reflect Him and become fierce and beautiful as