We were out to dinner at a popular restaurant for my daughter’s birthday. I was enjoying my family, enjoying my burger, and not paying much attention to anything else. Until, Autumn mentioned the song that was playing in the background, Beautiful Day by U2. It’s an iconic song. It holds in tension beauty and destruction, hope and disappointment. The main point the song tries to make is that no matter how bad things get, there is still hope. You can find beauty in a horrible day when it is viewed through the eyes of hope.

I’m a huge U2 fan and have been since I was eleven years old. Beautiful Day is one of my favorite songs. So, when Autumn mentioned it, all of this came flooding into my heart and mind.

As tough as it is to confess, my family and I have been going through a long season of living in survival mode. Most days it is quite hard to find beauty amid the chaos. Then there are days where God’s grace enables us to catch a glimpse of hope and embrace the beauty around us.

One day a few weeks ago, I asked the Lord, “How can we get out of this mess?” I had not yet realized that we were in survival mode. God told me, “One step at a time.” This was so liberating for me. I have labored for decades with the notion that if God really loved me, all the chaos and crap would just go away and that we would have perfectly ordered and blessed lives just like that. But in the moment God said, “One step at a time,” I began to see pathways to freedom that Jesus was inviting me to walk down with him. One specific path was to re-establish small routines, building on those successes.

Even though we are still in survival mode, we have caught a glimpse of hope that allows us to see the beauty of the day and the grace of God in the process toward freedom, one step at a time.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

Grace and peace,
Brook