That's What Makes You Beautiful.

Yep.  That's a title of a One Direction song.

In case you don't know, One Direction (1D to the truly enlightened) is a boy band that makes tween girls squeal with delight.

Last summer I took students to a mission camp called Passport.  On the last night a Variety Show is held.  Singing, dancing, joke-telling--you name it and a student does it.  The talent level may vary:), but everyone is welcome to participate.  I like it.

So it came as no surprise when one of the students sang "That's What Makes You Beautiful."  Most students sang with a friend or used an accompaniment track or played an instrument; but this fella had none of that.  He had a microphone, a CD of the song and a dream to be on stage.  That's it.

He took the stage and his nervousness was palpable.  Bless his heart. The music started and he was instantly frozen with a deer-in-the-headlights expression.  There he was before hundreds of teenagers--just a sweet, small middle school boy paralyzed with fear.  The CD went on singing without him.

The students were silent.  Little fella was frozen.  Adults like me were fah-reaking out--desperately wanting to help; but no one knew what to do...

but then something happened.

A rather cool looking high school guy slowly approached the stage, raised his hand high in the air and began jumping up and down in the most enthusiastic display of support I've ever seen.  He was alone for awhile, but that didn't phase him a bit.  He was jumping, smiling and encouraging the little 1D wannabe.

The singer was frozen for a moment more and then a huge grin filled his face.  He found the words again and he joined his #1 fan in jumping up and down. They were alone in their glee for about 10 seconds when hundreds of teens flooded the stage in love.  I wish you could have seen it.  It was beautiful.

I have been thinking about the word 'beautiful' lately.  Sometimes I use it synonymously with pretty, but I'm not going to do that anymore.  I want to reserve beautiful for moments like this one.  I want to use 'beautiful' to describe Christ's love in action, or when I can see Jesus' love on the face of another.  Beauty comes from the inside, and can make the outside more radiant--but the genesis of beauty is what's inside.  And let me be evangelical-y and say it this way:  If Jesus is in your heart, your gut, your being, your splankna (my favorite Greek word)--beauty will spill forth.  Beauty will be in your hands and feet and words.  Beauty will be personified by your actions.

THAT's what makes you beautiful.

Forgiveness and Flipping Canoes

I'm working on a list of "Things out of my comfort zone I WILL accomplish in 2013."  Here's a start:

1. Post a list of "Things out of my comfort zone I WILL accomplish in 2013" on my blog
2. Ride a tandem bike (SCARY)
3. Canoe and/or float (SCARY)
4. Refinish my dining room table (not so much scary as seemingly impossible)
5. Plant a vegetable and/or herb garden (no green thumbs and presence of snakes)

I've been thinking about #3 because folks are itching for spring so they can canoe on the mighty James River.  Tubing and canoeing are THE thing to do in Scottsville.  Though I would much rather read a book on the bank and live vicariously through free spirits, I WILL canoe and/or float at least once this summer.

Long, long ago...when big hair was semi-popular...I went canoeing.  I was competing in a relay race and the final leg was trip across the lake.  You might not know this about me, but I do enjoy the winning.  It was neck and neck so I went all out: To gain extra speed I leaned to the side and paddled the waters with my arms.  Sweet move KM.  You see where this ship is sailing (pun!) right?  I flipped the canoe...in the dead of winter...to win a relay race.  Not only did we lose; I soaked Daniel Ingram and myself to the bone.  In the words of onlookers I looked "like a drowned rat."  Canoeing is scary. 

It's easy breezy doing things that are second-nature, but retrying things at which we've failed?  Not so much.  If I have failed at something BIG TIME it's hard for me to try again.  Canoe-flipping is funny, but most of my failures aren't actually comical.  Failing at forgiveness and mercy are not quite as fun.

Retrying something at which we have failed is difficult.  There is fear of hardship.  There is fear of displeasing others.  There is fear of seeming like we don't have it all together. Fear, fear, fear. 

Sometimes we focus on shooing fear away, when really what we need to do is be the boss of it.  In my second Mark Twain reference of the week:  "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."  So grab fear by the horns and try forgiveness again.  Step into the canoe with a crazy smile on your face. 

I'm hoping by saying this list out loud I can get out of my boring ol' comfort zone and be one with rapids and vegetables and biking.    

What about you?  What scary things will YOU accomplish in 2013?