At a Glance
Explore the profound truths hidden in our most cherished Christmas carols.
“Joy to the World” announces the Kingship of Jesus, calling each of us to respond to His rule by pushing back against the effects of the fall. With grace, truth, and love, Christ’s reign brings hope to our weary world.
Similarly, “O Holy Night” paints a vivid picture of Christ’s birth, a moment that brought humanity a new and glorious dawn.
Our friend, Jessica Shakir, from The Beautiful Mind Academy, shares her passion about the Advent season with us as she thoughtfully connects the Christmas story back to the creation narrative.
Are you ready to revitalize the deep joy and hope found in the Christmas message? Tune in for a festive conversation filled with reflection, celebration, and a renewed understanding of the true meaning of Christmas!
Jessica Shakir
Jessica Shakir is a Biblical Beauty Coach and Founder of The Beautiful Mind Academy, a global online community of Jesus-loving women renewing their minds with the Word of God and transforming their worlds by partnering with the Living God to usher in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty wherever they go!
Through Soul Care and Spiritual Formation Coaching Programs, Guest Speaker Masterclasses, epic In-Person Retreats, and most recently, Abide Book Club, Jessica delights in helping women understand and live out Biblical Beauty to the Glory of God!
Jessica has worked as a Celebrity Hair + Makeup Artist for 25 years with a clientele that includes Colbie Caillat, Kevin Bacon, Jane Lynch, Rachel Hunter, Grace Park, Daniel Dae Kim, The Backstreet Boys, and Eminem. She’s even more excited to get to work with women of God whom she admires including Lisa Bevere, Lisa Harper, Havilah Cunnington, Laurie Crouch, Victoria Osteen, Cece Winans, and many more.
As a TV Beauty Expert, Jessica has been regularly featured on national TV segments on shows including ABC’s FABLife and The Dr. Oz Show. She was the Key Hair and Makeup Artist for Praise and Better Together for the Trinity Broadcast Network for 5 years and has worked on sets of The Talk, Steve Harvey, Wendy Williams, and America’s Next Top Model.
Jessica is wildly in love with her husband, Vincent Shakir, and she’s also passionate about encouraging single women, who desire to be married, to wait well by honoring God with a flourishing life now! Vincent and Jessica just moved from Southern California to Sweet Home Alabama where they are enjoying the simple life + fixing up their first home together!
Above all, Jessica revels in her relationship with Jesus, she finds joy in living a beautiful life, and desires to raise up an army of God’s daughters who are spiritually equipped and ready to lead and love others well!
What You'll Hear
Using the link above, you can read the transcript or listen along while highlighted text follows the podcast audio.
"The world often will be evangelized by beauty, before they ever hear about the birth of Jesus."
Jessica Shakir (57:09)
Quotes
Go Deeper
Recommended blogs from darrowmillerandfriends.com
- “Joy to the World” (2008) reflects on the truth that brings blessing to nations.
- “Far as the Curse is Found” (2020) reflects on an often omitted stanza.
- “Joy to the World; Heaven Comes to Earth!” (2020) reflects on the coming of the Messiah as ushering in a new era of human history.
- You might also be interested in Darrow’s nine-part series reflecting on this song, “Music that Writes Culture” (2009). Here is a quote:
- While this hymn is sung at Christmas, it is really more of a bridge to the New Year than specifically a Christmas song. Most Christmas carols focus on the birth of Christ as a little baby. In contrast, this carol focuses on Christ the King and His coming kingdom. It could be called a New Year’s carol. Much of the hymn deals with our response and our responsibilities to the coming of the Messiah…
10 Words to Heal Our Broken World: Restoring the Meaning of Our Most Important Words
By Scott David Allen
“The battle for a culture always involves a fight for hearts and minds, and the fight for hearts and minds is always a fight for words, especially the power of defining words. In this important book, Scott Allen has provided an essential handbook for our most significant cultural conflict: the words that matter most, how they are being redefined, and the definitions we must fight for.”
John Stonestreet, President of Colson Center and host of Breakpoint
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE CULTURE, YOU BEGIN BY CHANGING LANGUAGE.
The enemies of the gospel know this all too well. They’ve been cunningly at work redefining our most fundamental words, embedding them in our institutions and school curriculum, all to transform society to reflect their harmful, anti-Christian beliefs.
As followers of Jesus Christ, how should we respond? By clearly knowing and defending the true biblical definitions of at least ten critical words: truth, human, sex, marriage, freedom, justice, authority, faith, beauty, and love. If we long to see a revival in the church and a reformation of culture, we must recover the true definition of these ten foundational words. Learn more.
The Beautiful Mind Academy
Imagine being so secure in your identity, so certain of your calling + so in love with Jesus that you start living wildly FREE, feeling authentically beautiful, and LOVING who you are + whose you are, in this very moment.
This program has been designed to help you get the Truth of God’s Word from head to heart, so you can start living aligned, authentic, and FULLY ALIVE!!
The goal isn’t to become like me, or like her, but to become more like Jesus and to become even more authentically YOU! The beautiful YOU God delights in!
Together we apply biblical truth, positive psychology, neuroscience, and insights from my 22 years of studying BEAUTY to our lives. This program is filled with honest conversations + thoughtful questions.
Let’s partner with God as we apply His transformational power to these areas of our lives…
Our Beauty, Mind, Talent, Voice, Waiting, Pain, Body, Relationships, Faith, Life, Appearance, and it culminates with the spiritual discipline of Celebration!
