Formed in His ImageSýnishorn

An Itch You Can’t Scratch

There is an itch that all of us need to be scratched. And no matter how hard we try, we can never quite reach it.

We pick up the newest gadget. Still itchy. We take delivery of the next generation SUV. Tingling still there. We look for the next housing development that promises an oasis for our family. Argh, still can’t reach it. In our pursuit of happiness, there is always the prickling feeling that there is something more. If you still feel that itch, you are not alone. It's a longing that was never meant to be gratified by what we can buy, build, or borrow. It's a longing that was implanted in the hearts of mankind from the very beginning.

While we may not use terms such as the Good Life, truth, goodness, or beauty in our everyday vocabulary, these ideas inform everything we think, feel, say, and do. The decisions you and I make are based in some small way on our vision of what human flourishing looks like. We all have a basic notion of what is good, true, and beautiful and act according to those impulses.

We’ve lost the conversation on beauty and imagination in modern evangelical Christianity. We don’t talk about the beauty of God today nearly as much as Christians did throughout church history. There are plenty of reasons for this, but primarily our Western impulse for pragmatism and constant activity has shifted our attention from “being” to “doing.” We do not deny the existence of beauty and imagination, but we’ve lost the ability to speak about it meaningfully. We’ve lost how beauty and the wonder of God relate to our Christian life and our journey with God. We’ve traded deeper theological conversations for the practical and pragmatic.

We need to recover the notion of goodness, truth, and beauty because we can easily lose gospel focus. The gospel message always takes us back to what is good, true, and beautiful. It is easy for other desires and stories to infiltrate our hearts. The gospel is not just a one-time decision; it’s a life-shaping story. Without a gospel focus, discipleship and formation in the church will be weak and ineffective. The gospel is the focus of everything we do. Only the gospel makes us whole and flourishing people, equipping us for life now and preparing us for life to come.

This devotional is designed to return your attention to that which is good, true, and beautiful. As you journey through the reflections this week, may you also experience the call of Scripture to desire and pursue the beauty of God. By doing so, may the Spirit reshape and form your imagination toward a biblical vision of the good life.

This vision is the aim of Christian formation, namely, the beauty of God experienced in part in this life and in full in the life to come.