My favorite Ginny Owens song has it right:
“I have no words to offer. They only get in the way. When I try to explain You, there’s nothing sacred left to say.”
Maybe it’s that the fuel I used before is gone now. Maybe it’s that I’m less concerned with convincing, and more with simply accepting and living what I finally know to be true. Maybe there are more important things, like learning to be a good steward of what God gave me.
“Let them hear You through me, Let Your words be mine. Let them see that Your love is the reason I’m inspired.”
Some friends of ours just announced they’re pregnant, and the promise of that new life brought it all back. My mind was infused again with that familiar hope, banishing all lesser, insignificant thoughts. Of course, I told them we’d already gotten the best one, but there was still the inescapable excitement.
What will God bring of this? What will we learn?
But I realized a few things in their announcement, not least of all, how incredible the generation of inspiration really is. You can’t typically track it so easily. It’s supposed to be this mystical, insubstantial thing you simply try to be ready for in case it happens to show up. In fact, spontaneity sometimes seems to be one of the most vital ingredients to the muse’s fickle brew.
Yet in that moment, I realized inspiration was also able to be brought about through remembrance, this time of earth-shattering news through the anticipation of good friends. We experienced that once before too and there was the fact before us of experiencing life in all its complex glory and simply living in the mysterious world God had made.
“I don’t have all the answers. All I know is what You’ve shown. And I’m waiting for those moments when You make Your mystery known. Till then, I will be who You’ve called me to be.”
The moments of that understanding can seem so fleeting, sometimes it’s enough to make you want to give up and go watch some more sitcoms. If it’s so difficult to find that inspiration, why do we even bother to try? But if we can find inspiration through remembering those moments, don’t we have to try? Because it’s in those moments that others will remember too: it’s the love of God that makes all things possible. The love of God that so overwhelms life, you have to grab it up in big, heaping fistfuls just to try to get some of it into that little bucket of your book. We’ve got to remember, guys. We can’t just wait around for inspiration to show up, or pretend our memories of it aren’t really there.
God, show us more! Give us the eyes to see. Make us humble before You, that we might know more of what You’ve already shown us—and are waiting to show to others.
“And when given the choice, may they recognize Your voice. Let them hear You through me.”
May your words of inspiration this week, be reflections of the wonder you’ve known standing in the limitless ocean of His love.
“We can’t just wait around for inspiration to show up, or pretend our memories of it aren’t really there.”
This is a good post and a good reminder. But it also brings to mind something I’m beginning to believe about inspiration — it requires some discipline, too. If I sit around waiting for that spark or whatever, or even remembering that spark, I may not get much actual work done. I need to put myself in a place that invites that spark. I read an interview with Bono (in Time) after their last album came out and I loved what he said: “It’s all done in the morning now,” says Bono cheerfully. “I used to stay out late and try to walk the muse home. Now I get up fresh-faced at 7 a.m. and take advantage of her while she’s passing out.”
I’m not a morning person, but I’m trying to learn to take advantage of the muse every chance I get.
Linda
that was down right inspIrational mick.
had a touch of brennan manning to it.
good word.
suz