Finding True Beauty Through Selfless Service

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Evelyn Brand was born in England in 1879 and grew up in a well-to-do British family. She studied at the London Conservatory of Art and she dressed in the finest silks of the day. She was resoundingly converted to Christ, married and went with her husband to minister as missionaries in the Koli Malai mountain range in India. [00:01:13]

After about 10 years, her husband died at the age of 44. And she came home broken, beaten down by pain and grief. But after a year's restoration and against all advice, she returned all by herself to India. Her soul was restored. She poured her life into the hill people, nursing the sick, teaching farming. [00:02:05]

At age 67 she fell and broke her hip. Her son, Paul, famous a surgeon Paul Brandt, her son Paul encouraged her to retire. She had already suffered a broken arm, several cracked vertebrae, recurrent malaria. Her response, Paul, you know these mountains. If I leave, who will help the village people? [00:02:39]

When someone comes to take my place, then and only then will I retire. So she worked on and then almost 30 years later, 67, 30 years later at the age of 95, she died. The villagers buried her in a simple cotton sheet so that she would decompose and be part of the mountains. [00:03:10]

With wrinkles as deep and extensive as any I have ever seen on a human face, she was a beautiful woman. Now here's the great part for the last 20 years of her life, she refused to have a mirror in her house. I love this. She was consumed with ministry, not mirrors, not self. [00:03:35]

The world is spending billions of dollars and endless media time to persuade women that life consists in their looks, their skin, their shape, their hair. The scam is as old as history. At the center of it is the attempt to trick women into the habit of comparing themselves with other women. [00:04:17]

Three thousand years ago the Old Testament wise man pleaded with women not to be tricked. He said, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30. In other words, true beauty, the real praiseworthiness in life is not outward appearance. [00:05:06]

Two thousand years ago the apostle Peter said, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the putting on a gold julie, the clothing that you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's sight is very precious. [00:05:31]

In other words, true beauty is a life lived in the service of others. The greatest beauty is a life of self-forgetfulness for the good of others in the name of Jesus. [00:06:09]

Outward beauty is insignificant compared to inward beauty of humility and wisdom and love, a life lived for others and believe it or not, not only God but the world sees this at its common grace best. How many millions of people would say that Mother Teresa, old, wrinkled Mother Teresa had a beauty more powerful than all the models of the world put together. [00:07:25]

I have spectacular news for people with every kind of disability, namely everyone who trusts in Jesus will be completely healed in the resurrection and we will have brand new bodies, new faces, new legs, new arms, but we'll still be ourselves. [00:10:05]

The reason I tell that story is this: virtually all of us are way too wrapped up in our relatively minor problems. That man's face puts my concern with wrinkles and sagging and blotching in a proper light. What we all need is a good dose of exposure to real suffering, which we have not yet known. [00:10:35]

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