Beauty Archives - Faith and the Other Five Senses

3 Reasons I Find It Hard to Get Excited About Heaven

smgianotti@me.com — May 1, 2018

I love Jesus, but if God is handing out spiritual report cards, I’m probably getting an F when it comes to getting excited about Heaven.* The Apostle Paul—who tells us to imitate his faith—says, “I desire to depart and be with Christ” (Phil 1:23), but when I try to rev my enthusiasm for that place after death, my battery sputters.

Over the last five years at seminary, I had the chance to study the Bible as one big story, from the garden to the city. Revisiting the edges of God’s story gave me a new lens for understanding why I have a hard time getting excited about heaven. Here’s three of my top reasons:

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

1. Worship songs aren’t really my thing.

After three repetitions of the chorus from “10,000 Reasons” at church, I’m ready to call a time-out and connect with the maroon cushions, not stay on my feet for another four songs. I’ve never been a good stander. And despite my laser focus when it comes to reading and writing, singing turns my mind into seven-year-old with ADD. Music time at church deteriorates into twenty minutes of hand-slapping my brain back to attention.

A Few Words that Changed Me

smgianotti@me.com — July 26, 2016

“So, you’re here today about your blood pressure,” I said, my words trotting out. The key to a successful morning at a doctor’s office is to keep up the tempo. Fall behind schedule before 9 a.m. and you’ll have a morning full of grumpy patients waiting for you. I dropped onto the swivel chair and opened my laptop.

“Blood pressure looks great. How long have you been off the pills?” A couple weeks. She’d waited till after surgery like we’d discussed.

“Any new problems?” No, she felt great. Surgery had gone well. No other concerns.

Photo courtesy of Megan Au via flickr.com (CC BY-ND-NC 2.0)

I closed my laptop and slid the stethoscope into my ears. I couldn’t believe my luck, this was going to be the quickest first-appointment-of-the-day ever.

“Sounds good. Hope you have a great week!” I stuffed the stethoscope into my pocket and headed for the door.

“One more thing…” she said Continue Reading…

Finding God through Travel

smgianotti@me.com — June 14, 2016

When Tameshia Williams, a classmate and fellow foodie, told me about how she encounters God through travel, I loved her perspective–so much so that I asked her to guest post here on Faith the Other Five Senses.

* * *

Some people call travel a luxury, but for me it’s a sacred experience. When I travel, God shows me his beauty–dramatic mountain ranges and oceans vibrant with blue. He also reveals the beauty of his image, refracting off the faces of strangers.

I’ve encountered all sorts of people in my last few years of travel: the man who returned my passport wallet when I dropped it in the baggage claim, the guys who shared a bag of pistachios with me on the train, and a group of pre-teen schoolgirls who rescued me from a European bathroom stall with a faulty lock. Yeah…that happened. While some of these adventures left me laughing, others affected me deeply.

Strangers, or friends waiting to happen

A writing festival brought a friend and I, budget-conscious students, to a west Michigan city. We stayed with distant acquaintances to one of our writing professors, Dan and Nancy, who shared their spare bedrooms and meals with us. The more we got to know each other, polite chuckles gave way to bellyaching guffaws. Our small talk snowballed into passionate discussions about race, women in ministry, and art. Now, a year later, we still keep in touch with life updates and prayer requests Continue Reading…

Your Body Is a Gift, No Matter What You See

smgianotti@me.com — April 12, 2016

America has body-image issues — everyone knows that. But, when, I complained once to my boyfriend-at-the-time about the pressure on women to be beautiful, sexy, and the size of a Starbuck’s straw, he responded that men feel pressure, too. Since women now earn PhDs, make six figures, and head into their thirties both single and respected, it’s not enough for Mr. Darcy to be rich. He also needs a six-pack and a full head of hair.

Photo courtesy of Olenka Kotyk via unsplash.com

According to research, my boyfriend was right. Men claim nearly one in four cases of anorexia and bulimia. Pop culture also testifies to the growing number of men concerned about their bodies—from actor Jamie Dorian, of Fifty Shades of Grey, who admits to having “massive hang-ups” about his body to last spring’s media flurry over the virtues of having a dad-bod.

So, while Dove®, BuzzFeed, and MTV tackle the body-image epidemic in our country, I keep wondering when Christians will pipe in. Our story, after all, affirms the goodness of the human body from beginning to end. Consider any of the Bible’s climaxes—creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, or Jesus’ future return. God’s best work plays out through the human body Continue Reading…

In Anorexia, Beauty, Bible, Body Image, Bulemia, Christianity, Dieting, Eating Disorder, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus anorexia, body, body-image, Christianity, dieting, eating-disorder, Gift, God, image, weight

The Waiting Room

smgianotti@me.com — March 1, 2016

“Sir?”

A woman’s voice ricochets inside his head.

“Sir?”

He follows the line of chairs to the pamphlets, mounted on the wall, and the window beyond. A woman sits behind it, with the glass pane slid open, and points toward a young man who is taking off his headphones.

Photo courtesy of Carol Von Canon via flickr.com

Tires peel behind him and he works his neck around as far as it will go. A green car speeds across the parking lot and into the morning sun.

Sunlight.

He reaches to scratch his calf Continue Reading…

In Art, Beauty, Christianity, Embodiment, Faith, Fiction, General Revelation, God, Jesus, Love, People, Sacrament, Sacramental, Story alzheimer, alzheimer's, Creation, faith, fiction, general revelation, God, Jesus, memory, sacramental, world

Invest in the Moment: Another Lesson Christians Can Learn from the Culinary Arts

smgianotti@me.com — February 2, 2016

“How much?” the pastor jolted upright in his leather chair.

“Forty-thousand dollars,” she said.

“But…” he readjusted his glasses, “…why would…that many wouldn’t even fit in the church.”

“You might be surprised how much it costs to ship the best orchids, gazanias, and cherry blossoms from Brazil, South Africa, and Japan. Specialty flowers, you know, are my business.”

“But…” the pastor’s hand, having left his glasses, hung in mid air, “why not donate that money somewhere else…the building fund…some missionaries…the homeless shelter?”

“I want to give God something beautiful.”

“But, they’ll just die.”

“I know.”

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He closed it again. “It just seems…” He faltered.

“…like a waste?” she said.

He cleared his throat and looked away.

* * * * *

Photo courtesy of Jorge Zapata via unsplash.com

As American Christians, we’re likely to sympathize with the pastor—unless, we find the same story in Matthew 26. There we find ointment instead of flowers, disciples instead of a pastor, and a woman wanting to do something beautiful for Jesus.

Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt, but when it comes to Bible, familiarity makes us numb to the shock of the story. A year’s wages for five minutes of worship. Hundreds of poor people that could have been fed for months. Religious onlookers who thought they knew better. How would Jesus respond Continue Reading…

In A Better World, Art, Beauty, Bible, Chef, Christian, Christianity, Culinary, Eating, Embodiment, Embodiment & Incarnation, Faith, Food, God, Imagination, Incarnation, Jesus, Story America, Anointing Jesus, Christian, Christianity, Church, Cooking, Culinary Arts, Culture, faith, Finances, Food, God, Investment, Jesus, Matthew 26, Money

What Christians Can Learn from the Culinary Arts – #1: Beauty Matters

smgianotti@me.com — January 19, 2016

If someone visited the churches in your city—let’s say the Protestant ones—what would they conclude about Christians, in terms of beauty? If the sanctuaries in your city are anything like mine, they’d assume that Christians don’t care much about it.

Sure, we appreciate beauty when it crosses our path—in a song by Adele or a handmade leather wallet—but only if we have time for it. In the hierarchy of life, there are more important things—like paying our heating bills, getting the brakes fixed, and telling people about Jesus.

Photo courtesy of Artur Rutkowski via unsplash.com

But, while we might prioritize necessity over beauty, God never does. From the beginning, he wove aesthetics into the necessity of life. His new world wasn’t just sustainable and durable, it was also beautiful. We catch glimmers of that beauty when God observes his work and calls it “good” and when Adam enthuses after seeing Eve for the first time, but we run straight into it in chapter three—at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Continue Reading…

In Art, Beauty, Chef, Christian, Christianity, Culinary, Eating, Faith, Food, God, Jesus art, beauty, chef, Christian, Christianity, eating, faith, Food, God, Jesus

The St. John’s Bible: Theology & Art Can Play Nice After All

smgianotti@me.com — December 8, 2015

I clicked delete thinking, “The bookstore is hosting an event to promote a new Bible? That sounds boring.” That’s right, I used the words “Bible” and “boring” in the same sentence.

A week later, I shuffled my feet inside that same bookstore, waiting for an author to sign my book. My eyes wandered from one shelf to the next until something caught my eye on the wall. It was the painting below:

Genesis 1, The St. John’s Bible, used with permission

Just then a clerk walked by.

“What is that?” I asked, gasping for breath Continue Reading…

In Art, Beauty, Christianity, Embodiment art, Art and Theology, Bible, Scripture, St. John's Bible, Theology

Finding God in the Beautiful

smgianotti@me.com — July 2, 2015

I squinted through the glass, studying the columns of ruffles, the blue sash, and the hint of puffed sleeves. My friend and I talked about the dress for weeks. But, I’m a pastor’s kid, which means I suffer from a love-hate relationship with shopping.

If a shrink had me on her couch, she’d probably dip up memories of my mom dragging me to the back of every store, past the full-price clothes that glimmered and whispered my name. Even at the age of ten, I knew I had a better chance getting my gerbil to paint the Mona Lisa than of owning that dress.

Photo courtesy of Christian Holzinger via unsplash.com

Several weeks later, my friend showed me her new Christmas outfit. As the gold taffeta swooshed around her legs, envy crawled up mine. I tried to smother images of the hand-me-downs I’d be wearing on Christmas Eve.

But, just then, grace happened Continue Reading…

In Beauty, Christianity, Embodiment beauty, Common Grace, Grace

Do Christians Still Care About Beauty?

smgianotti@me.com — April 21, 2015

I sat in front of my laptop. The sun was still snoozing under the horizon and I was reading Exodus, one of those books from the front half of the Bible. Actually, I wasn’t reading. I was floating half-conscious over paragraphs about alters, oil, and priests and wondering why I had left the land of sleep for this.

But, then my eyes snagged on something. “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” (Ex. 28:2, ESV).

Wait, I thought, beauty matters to God?

Photo courtesy of Jan Erik Waider via unsplash.com

After all the years I spent in Sunday school, I felt pretty good about how well I could predict God. If he was selecting qualities he wanted in worship—his first draft pick would be glory. Subsequent rounds he’d choose things like love, faith, and obedience. But, it had never crossed my mind that God’s idea of worship wasn’t complete without beauty Continue Reading…

In Beauty, Christianity beauty, Bible, Christianity, Worship

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