Beauty of God: Day 1 - The Challenge Begins

This really has turned out to be quite the challenge, and it's only day one! And I'm wondering if 12:40 a.m. counts as day one, or am I already on day two, and late in updating on my own challenge.

But I don't want to update in the middle of the day (when, really, the middle of the day is hardly a day started for me).

So...what have I learned of God's beauty in my life today?

Part of the challenge is going to be figuring that out this month, I know. There are gonna be days where I feel like I haven't seen or felt a darn thing.
Maybe like how I feel today.

Really, today was a rough start for me. Woke up late when I had planned on waking up early, was tired all day, and didn't get as much done as I had wanted to. Do these kinds of unplanned disasters always happen when you know you're trying harder than ever to experience God in some way, especially when you hope to grow closer to Him through it all?

But maybe that's the beauty of today: the knowledge that through all this mess, God is with me, and the hardships will be worth it. As cliche as that sounds, it's no less true than God's faithfulness.

Yeah, I think the beautiful thing about today is the knowledge that throughout this endeavor, God's going to remain faithful, and work wonders on my soul, and I pray for others as well (a friend just texted 3 John v.2, and I feel like it seriously ties in to all this).

Maybe on a more physical side to this whole beauty thing, while at work, I was looking in one of the rooms, called the laser printing room. All the lights were out, so everything was enshrouded in dark, fuzzy shadows. But coming through the windows, the sun was casting a deep golden yellow on anything it could touch.

I wish I had taken a moment to stop and soak it all in. Maybe it's an artist thing, or maybe I'm just easily taken in by stuff like that, but there was something so peaceful and beautiful about seeing that deep sunset gold on all that equipment. Actually, the equipment didn't matter. The light did.

God's light.

Because He's gonna keep shining in the dark.
When situations seem fuzzy and dark, He can shine His light in the most marvelous ways, if we let Him. And if we chose to see His light, focus on that rather than the darkness and confusion.

So. I'm going to stand on this: that as I do my best to focus on His beauty in these messes I get myself in to, that my soul will grow closer to Him.

I pray that also for all who are joining in this as well.