A Friendly Reminder About The Beauty Chasers Community
Today is the last day to register for my new Beauty Chasers Community. For those curious, The Beauty Chasers Community is a growing group of kindred spirits who want to start of movement; people who see chasing beauty as seeking hard after God. Members get:
Two Beauty Chats with me via Zoom each month
Access to the growing library of Beauty Chat recordings
Bonus resources
Each talk is roughly the cost of a Caramel Machiatto and less than a No.1 at Chick-fil-A. The talks are mini-workshops I give on beauty, culture, faith, spiritual formation, and all things related to the idea of chasing Beauty—which I frame as chasing after God. I created this page to give you all the details and a seamless registration process.
Registration closes at Midnight. I’ve kept it open secretly for my rabble-rousers and world-changers—for you. :)
We had our first Zoom Beauty Chat yesterday and it was fantastic. I loved seeing you guys and sharing with you! And don’t worry if you missed it or hadn’t registered. All members get access to the recorded talks. I’ll be posting yesterday’s talk soon!
Why You Should Venture into the Unknown
I talk a lot about adventure. I wrote an entire chapter about adventure in my new book—the content of that chapter originated right here.
In adventure stories, a hero goes into the unknown. The hero doesn’t know he’s a hero, he’s just a character moving along a line of action.
Then things happen to him. He’s confronted with situations in which he must make decisions that propel him to the next circumstance.
The decisions stack up and we, as the reader or viewer, look over his decision making and call it a narrative. Look at his narrative arc, we say.
His arc takes him into the unknown—to new places where he meets new people. He must adapt to the unknown or face death. Indeed, he faces death often, or some kind of death.
In the unknown, he discovers something of value. It can be a literal thing, like the ring of power in Lord of the Rings, or perhaps it is something of value within him.
Jordan Peterson, the public intellectual and New York Times bestselling author, likes to emphasize that the hero story is not only about going into the unknown and discovering something of value. The arc finishes when he returns from the unknown and shares that thing of value.
The Christian life is an adventure. And the unknown is God.
“Eh, but Tim,” you say. “We can know God, through his son Jesus, right?”
“Ah yes,” I reply. “You have me there. And yet, as much as we can abide in Christ, God remains other. His unique holiness makes him an inexhaustible source of knowing.
Like the children at the end of the Last Battle in The Chronicles of Narnia, they keep running and flying further up and further into the land. It’s the same, but also changed, and it is endless and fresh. It feels like home, but also a place they can explore endlessly.
In the story, the new Narnia symbolizes heaven. So, it is their final destination.
But in this life, when we venture “further up and further in” to God himself, he gives us nuggets of beauty, blessings of value that we can return and share with others.
Our culture has a love affair, with itself.
And we’re programmed to take part in this love affair.
But I say rebel.
Find something beautiful about God and his blessing in your life, and share it.
Fine, you don’t view yourself as a hero. Neither do I. But being a hero isn’t the point. The adventure is.
Going out into the unknown of God and discovering the value of his love. It is the giving of the treasure that makes one a hero to another person. It’s their need that we should care for, not our own.
It is in the pouring out that we find the heart of the hero. Not that we are great.
But that we are willing to dare and care and share.
This newsletter is free for everyone. But behind the scenes, I’m assembling a tribe of folks who want more than free content that inspires them. They want to change the world with the love of God. If you’re really enjoying this newsletter, consider jumping into the paid tribe.
When you move to “Paid Subscriber” you are giving me a kind of fistbump that says, “Yes, let’s do this thing. Go and change the world with words pointing towards Heaven.” And for that, I’m eternally grateful. Something fun is coming for the Paid crew. Stay tuned.
There’s still time to claim the best discount ever for this newsletter. Will it come around again? Who knows. But this is the last full day to claim it.