James Bryan Smith - The Magnificent Story: Uncovering a Gospel of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth

T his book is intended to be used in the context of a communitya small group, a Sunday school class, or a few friends gathered in a home or coffee shop. Working through this book with others greatly magnifies the impact. If you go through this on your own, only the first four of the following suggestions will apply to you. No matter how you use it, I am confident that God can and will accomplish a good work in you.

1. Prepare: Find a notebook or journal with blank pages. You will use this journal to answer questions sprinkled throughout each chapter (in boxes) and for the reflection on the soul training exercises (instructions are at the end of each chapter).
2. Read: Read each chapter thoroughly. Try not to read hurriedly, and avoid reading the chapter at the last minute. Start reading early enough in the week so you have time to digest the material and to do the exercise.
3. Do: Complete the weekly Soul Training Exercise. Engaging in exercises related to the content of the chapter will help deepen the ideas and narratives you will be learning. It can also be healing, as it connects you to God. The exercises in this book are best done over several days.
4. Reflect: Make time to complete your written reflections. You may not be a journaling type, but I encourage you to find some way to keep track of your answers to the box questions as well as your reflections on the exercise.
5. Interact: Come to the group prepared to listen and share. If everyone takes time to write out answers in advance, the group conversation will be much richer, and your time together will be more effective. Remember the group discussion rule: listen twice as much as you speak. But do speak! The other group members will learn from your ideas and experiences.
6. Encourage: Interact with each other outside of group time. Use technology to stay in touch with the members of your group between gatherings. One good idea is to have a group email thread in which someone posts a thought or idea or question, and others can chime in. Another great thing to do is intentionally email at least one person in your group each week with an encouraging word.

W e are made for a beautiful, good, and true story. If you are like me, you have not spent a lot of time thinking about beauty or goodness or trutheven though they are a large part of our lives. Yet we are constantly evaluating things on the basis of their beauty (Wow, that home is beautiful), their goodness (Is ice cream good or bad for us?), and their truth (Is that politician telling the truth or just being self-serving?). The practice for this week, along with other practices throughout this book, is aimed at helping you become more aware of the beauty, goodness, and truth all around us.

We become more aware of beauty, goodness, and truth by being more intentional. A journal is a great way to become more intentional and to reflect on the impact of the practice. If you are able, buy a nice journal to write in (though a notebook will do). This week we are focusing on beauty. Be on the lookout for beauty and write about it.

Another way to do this exercise is to keep a photo journal. Perhaps you can take pictures of what you see and either put them in a journal or make a file in your phone. You can title the file Beauty I Have Seen. Or if you see something beautiful in a magazine, you could cut it out and paste it into an actual journal.

For many, beauty is most clearly revealed in creation (most easily through sight). For example, you will likely see trees and flowers, green grass, a blue sky, a bird soaring. But also be open to beautiful smells (honeysuckle), tastes (chocolate), sounds (rainfall), and touch (a cool breeze). The human voice can produce incredible beauty. Each year at our annual spiritual formation conference at Friends University, our student choir, the Singing Quakers, enters the auditorium and surrounds the audience. They then sing beautiful sacred music. I look out at the crowd as I sit on the stage, and energy, power, and light shine on the audience members faces, many of them weeping, nearly everyone smiling. Remember, beauty is that which, when seen, pleases.

Beauty (as well as goodness and truth) is not ultimate (the last) but penultimate (the second to the last). The point is not the beautiful sunset, the violin concerto, or the painting. That would make the beautiful thing ultimate, thus making it an idol. Beauty is designed to point to something elseGod. God is the Creator of all things, so when we experience beauty it is right and good to thank God for it, as God is the ultimate. So in your journal find a way of giving thanks for the beauty you have experienced. Let wow be your way of giving thanks.

A final word: do not worry about when you do this exercise. Some find it best to do this in the evening since the day is still fresh in their minds. Others are better able to start their day with this exercise, as they might be tired in the evening.