Roman Holiday

The church that I was raised in was a tiny wood building surrounded by cottonwood trees. It was quaint, but beauty was about as far flung from that little building as Texas was from China. There was a single picture in the entire building, and it was a portrait of Jesus that I could have stared at for hours.

That was the world I grew up in, void of art or an appreciation for art. I imagine Dietrich Bonhoeffer could relate, although he was certainly exposed to more prestige than I.

Seeing beauty from a background like that is shocking. It evokes these emotions that I can't explain. There's this entire world that you've only ever dreamed about, and there it is before your eyes. What do you do with those emotions, and how can you properly process that wonder?

For Bonhoeffer, traveling to Rome shifted his perspective of the Church. He saw the wonder of beauty in the cathedrals, and the Holy sacredness in liturgy. He was exposed to a new perspective. It changed him.

The benefits of both the grace and freedom in Calvinism and the sacred beauty in Catholicism evolved into this other theology, one that marked Bonhoeffer and made him distinctive.

In so many ways, I feel like Bonhoeffer.

I am from a very narrow-minded culture.

And yet the things I have seen here have already begun to mold some of my more loosely held beliefs.

Thoughts swirl whenever I consider the more liberal nation of France, and sometimes I wonder if the American church does not respect beauty as it should.

I think there's an unspoken idea here that our lives are passing. It's hard to look at a palace that has stood for hundreds upon hundreds of years, who's walls have housed some of the most famed monarchs in history, and not realize that our pressing problems and concerns are fleeting, if not

inconsequential.

They aren't so goal-oriented here. Not always considering the future and what it holds and how money can be made and social ladders can be climbed.

France, for me, has been a breath of fresh air, and a reminder. A reminder to enjoy the present moment, because in the end, we will die or we will be taken to the Father.

This is the life we have been given.

Will we love, embrace, and obey the whispers in our heart?
Or will we be so consumed by the bottom line, by our world-view, or simply by our own self-interest that we drive ourselves to the peak of success, but to the edge of misery?