Do not move on too quickly
In a world overflowing with inspiration and brokenness, how do we respond?
First, how do we respond in our own lives when something speaks to us personally? We feel a match strike and maybe even sense that there is a passion within us that could set fire if we let it…but do we let it?
I’m afraid in my own life I tend to move on too quickly after I have been inspired or broken by something. My spirit leaps or weeps and I barely do more than sigh.
What about you?
There are so many people and projects in this world to be inspired by and issues we could get passionate about. But our consume-more culture makes it difficult for us to be truly rattled to our core by just one. Before a seed of inspiration really can germinate within us and turn into declaration or action in our lives, it is blown away or replaced by a new seed.
We read a book, watch a movie, see a segment on t.v., have a conversation with someone unexpected and we feel something stir within in us. We might even hear a whisper: “This is important. Sit with this for awhile.” But we don’t. We move on. We move on back to the daily round of our lives or to the next thing that can give us that momentary high. And by moving on too quickly, we miss out on how that book, that movie, that conversation might really change us.
We are aware, or at least becoming aware, of the incredible amount of “stuff” we consume– the clothes, the food, the home-decor. We can choose to buy less and learn to live really enjoy what we already have. But are we are aware of the amount of inspired ideas we consume?
We crave not only Christian Louboutin platform pumps, but an ever flowing fire hydrant of inspiration and thoughts, words, ideas to make us feel. Just one of these inspired thoughts may have the power to change our lives, yet our lives our not changed by any of them.
I’m just coming off one of the most impactful long weekends of my life. Last Thursday and Friday my husband and I attended the Global Leadership Summit and listened to 13 amazing speakers from Zach Welch to T.D Jakes talk about what it takes to be a good leader and make a difference in the lives of other people.
My pen could not write fast enough. There were not enough pages in my journal. Their was too much wisdom, experience, advice and insight for my cognitive faculties to contain…but I tried. I transcribed their words till my hand cramped. (And in the following weeks I’ll share more what I learned with you).
It dawned on me after the first day, that for all the greatness of these people and their ideas, it wouldn’t change me, unless I did more than consume what they had to say.
My pastor talks about what it means to be changed by God’s vision for our life and what he says is that we have to let it interrupt our world. For the things that stir us- the injustices in the world that wreck us, and the broken places within us that leave us undone for other people struggling with the same thing, we have to be willing to let it mark us, not as overwhelmed victims of it, but as passionate voices for the change.
“We pray for signs and miracles and avoid the context for which they can take place.” -Christine Caine
All of this is just to say, I do not want to move on too quickly from what I have just experienced. I want to rest right here and let the ideas germinate. I want to be changed by what I heard. I want to be rattled to my core.
I’m encouraging you to do something similar: Rest in one book for awhile. Rest in one blog post. Really reflect on what is being said and why or what about it is resonating with you. Do the action steps that come next.
Do not waste your whole life being inspired and never take inspired action.
It is not enough for inspiration to run along an infinite horizontal. We have to allow inspiration to go deep. Vertical inspiration is what is needed to be truly transformed by ideas and issues.
Here is what I believe:
What inspires you is a gift from God. It is the beginning of living with passionate purpose. I believe that when we feel inspired or our spirits are shaken, a seed of great possibility is planted within us– a possibility for change and action in our own life and way beyond.
Here is a simple prayer we all can say: Lord, please do not let me consume inspiration like I do my Starbucks. Help me to understand that my life and potential impact on others is much too important for that.
In this season of your life, what if you let yourself be rattled to the core by just one idea or issue? What if you let it change the way you live? What if you decided you did not need more ideas, more issues, more action steps? (My guess is that like our underwear, we all have more than enough).
What might happen if you simply carved out a day to revisit the ideas and inspirations that spoke to you once… and this time actually gave them the time in your schedule to do something to propel them forward in your life? What if you returned to that blog post you loved so much? Reopened that book that rocked your world? Continued that conversation that began to shift something inside of you?
So, in a world overflowing with inspiration and brokenness, this is how we can respond:
Choose one thing that makes our spirit leap or weep. Let that seed sink deep down within us. Let it really interrupt our life. Do not allow ourselves to settle for just a surface inspiration. Pray the issue or idea God is calling us to grows roots in our heart, so it will not blow away. Return to sit with it daily and follow through when the right next step comes. Do not move on too quickly.
