The Other Side of Beauty by Leah Darrow

Author:Leah Darrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2017-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Noise

The second thing that tends to keep us from living the kind of life we were made for is, quite simply, noise. It is really hard to ignore all the voices of the world out there that are continually trying to sell us imitation beauty. Imitation beauty is everywhere: on the rack at the checkout counter in the grocery store, on billboards as we drive around town, on television and radio commercials, and even in the words and attitudes of people we know. How can we get away from it long enough to remind ourselves what it really means to be beautiful, what our identities are rooted in, and that we are worth so much more than what the world says we are?

The easiest way to combat noise, although probably the most uncomfortable one, is practicing silence. Silence and contemplation are lost arts in our busy world. We are connected to everyone and everything almost every second of the day. We don’t dare leave our homes or offices without our cell phones. Even when we are surrounded by people we love and want to spend time with, we come down with an instant case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and consequently spend an unhealthy amount of time scrolling through our feeds, checking in with the world . . . just in case we might’ve missed something.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying we should all get rid of our pocket-sized tech gadgets. The rise of cell phones and social media has done a lot of good for the world. We can now easily communicate with family who live in other cities and stay connected better than ever before. By using social media I was able to call for the prayers of more than 150,000 people when my daughter was rushed to the hospital with a severe asthma attack. With the push of a button, Ricky and I have shared with our family thousands of miles away the good news of welcoming new babies into this world.

But cell phones and social media can also be a huge distraction when the world is just one swipe away. Our phones have become extensions of ourselves. The Pew Research Council found that among eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds, 81 percent admit that they regularly check their phones for messages or missed calls, even when they haven’t felt it vibrate or heard it ring.1 We are so habituated to our phones’ vibration or ringtone that we actually imagine it is there when it isn’t. Sometimes we even treat our phones like lovers; 61 percent of the same age group admit that they sleep next to their phones so that they don’t miss anything during the night.2

In the face of the twentieth century’s distractions, German French artist Jean Arp observed,

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