Life can get really UGLY.

Marriages sometimes end in divorce. A person is healthy one minute, then a routine physical reveals terminal cancer, and medical bills wipe out any savings. Jobs are lost, children don’t respond to parental teaching. Sons and daughters return home from war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I could list a dozen more tragic losses. How do we cope, or is coping the answer? I believe we need to face these difficulties and setbacks with a different mindset. Instead of merely treating our problems with a salve-coping-we need to delve into the core and search for the beauty in life’s ugliness.

How do we find this beauty? There is only one way-by looking to the cross. The world scorned Jesus as being ugly, but he arose in the beauty of eternal life. Following His example will give us the courage so we, too, can face life’s ugliness by discovering its deep, inner beauty.