Moving Beyond Inspired
Aug 4 2023 - Amy Raby
I love to be inspired. That soaring feeling inside when something beautiful or powerful or unthinkable awakens my soul to life, just a little bit more. Whether it’s a Sunday sermon, a heart-piercing melody or a book about fighting injustice, inspiration is like wind that pulls the kite higher and higher.
I recently heard some people talking about how humans love to be inspired. I resonated. They continued on explaining how inspiration is easy but movement is hard. Inspiration feels good; implementation is messy. Inspiration is romanticized; change is reality. Actually engaging a shift in behavior, once inspired, takes a lot of effort and doesn’t always feel so good.
Let me give you some personal examples (one successful and one not):
I am inspired to nurture my body with good green food after enjoying a healthy meal or watching a documentary about how our food is made or reading a book like Margaret Feinberg’s, Taste and See, but I still eat sugary cereal at night and occasionally enjoy McDoubles (with no onions of course).
I am inspired when I hear people talk about how ridiculously connected (aka addicted) we are to our phones and social media. All the research points to how they negatively impact us. I agree and feel motivated to be on my phone less, but it is not until after reading a few books and listening to several podcasts, over a course of YEARS, that I actually delete all my social media accounts and stop sleeping with my phone by my bed.
I see this truth in scripture with the rich young ruler (Matthew 19; Mark 10; Luke 18) who was inspired by the thought of inheriting eternal life. Yet when Jesus called him to action—sell all you have, give to the poor, come and follow me—he walked away from Jesus in sadness.
We are inspired way more often than we engage in an inspired change. Why? The bottom line is that change is hard, especially when you’re a Christian called to “lose your life so you can find it” (Matthew 10:39). Change can feel like loss, but if it’s in line with the Holy Spirit, it is far from it.
Inspiration isn’t meant to stop with that swelling feeling inside of you. God gives us the experience of inspiration so that we will MOVE, namely toward Him! Brennan Manning quotes in, The Signature of Jesus, “One faltering but actual step is more valuable than any number of journeys performed in the imagination.” If we are inspired, should we not press into that inspiration and seek what God might be saying, showing, or inviting us to do through it?
The Oxford dictionary gives two definitions of inspiration:
- the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
- the drawing in of breath; inhalation.
The Bible uses the word inspiration in II Timothy 3:16 meaning, “divinely breathed in”.
Isn’t that beautiful? When we witness a glorious sunset or watch a touching film and are “stimulated to feel something”, could it be that we are breathing in a bit of the Divine? As we know, breath doesn’t just stay inside of us; we exhale every breath we take in.
I think that is the same principle with inspiration. We take something in and God wants to bring something out. Don’t keep it in! If you feel moved by the Spirit of God in ANY way—to fight human trafficking, to connect better as a family, to help the poor, to adopt, to create, to pray, to fast, to sabbath, to build deeper community, to sacrifice financially to support missionaries, to be a missionary…whatever it is, if it is God doing it, don’t ignore it! Breathe it in and ask Him what it looks like to flesh it out. Take His sweet kisses of inspiration and see what He might make of them.
I John 3:17-18 “If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.”