Midweek Message November 13, 2025

The Beauty We Choose to See

It’s hard for me to believe that November is almost halfway over. I am already planning my Thanksgiving meal, finding new recipes, dusting off old ones, and eagerly anticipating the time spent in shared gratitude with my family. This Sunday’s message, “Looking for Love in All the Right Places,” asks where we find hope and strength amid all that life brings, both joy and loss, beauty and pain.

Our minds are powerful instruments. Whatever we choose to look for, we tend to find. If you’ve ever thought about buying a certain car, you’ve probably noticed that once it’s on your mind, you start seeing that model everywhere. It’s not that the world has suddenly changed, it’s that your attention has shifted. The same is true of gratitude. When we direct our awareness toward the good, the beautiful, and the kind, our subconscious begins to seek them out.

Gratitude doesn’t erase pain, but it does remind us that beauty and hardship often coexist. We can notice the chill in the air and also be thankful for the way autumn colors light up the trees. We can feel the approach of winter and also appreciate the season of rest it brings, a time for quiet reflection, like a seed gathering strength beneath the soil before spring. Gratitude allows us to see that life’s rhythm of gain and loss, joy and sorrow, is part of a larger wholeness.

I’m reminded of the film Inside Out, where Joy discovers that many of Riley’s happiest memories are rooted in sadness. The two emotions are intertwined; one gives meaning to the other. The same is true for love. Real love is not the absence of grief but the capacity to keep our hearts open through it, to see the beauty that remains, even when something has been lost.

This Sunday, as the choir sings For the Beauty of the Earth, I hope we’ll all take a moment to listen deeply, not just to the music, but to the gratitude found within it. The song reminds us that love is present in the turning of the seasons, the gift of friendship, the wonder of creation, and the small, fleeting moments that fill our days.

May we continue to look for love in all the right places, not in perfection or certainty, but in the everyday beauty that surrounds us. When we train our hearts to notice it, love and gratitude reveal themselves everywhere.

With love and gratitude,

Josh Figueroa (he/him), Acting Director of Music Ministries