There is a recent fascination with “glo ups”. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, a “glo up” is an upgrade, so to speak. It’s a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. It’s a term for someone shedding the ugly duckling stage and stepping into their swan era. That swan era is likely to include improved looks and newfound confidence. What I love most about this phenom is that it’s a quiet process.
It’s not so much waiting on a pot to boil as it is trying to watch a flower bloom.
You don’t see the subtle changes. They just happen and you look up one day and the bud from before is a full-blown flower. In this age of overexposure, there is something to be said about the beauty of subtlety. You don’t have to shout to the world, “Hey, look at me over here changing.” You just let it happen and when you step back on the scene, let the transformation speak for itself.
Some things in our lives take quiet preparation. They aren’t meant for the world to see. It’s easy to lose focus on our own destinies because we’re trying to live up to what we see someone else living on the screen. Our paths are not the same, our timing isn’t the same. We must learn to be comfortable living backstage until it’s our time to emerge.
It’s hard.
Sometimes it hurts.
Sometimes it’s lonely and it feels like nothing will ever change.
However, Scripture promises that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion,” (Philippians 1:6). That means our “glo up” is pretty much assured. The butterfly doesn’t emerge from the cocoon before it’s ready. If it does, then we don’t see a beautiful new creation. Instead, we see an awkward caterpillar stuck between two stages of development and nowhere near ready to fly.
Trust the process. Trust the timing. Stay the course.
The transformation is what we celebrate.
The “glo up” is what we ogle over.
However, our private time in development with our Creator is infinitely more valuable and in the long run more awe-inspiring than all the likes, shares, retweets, etc.
