bits of inspiration

“The life of true holiness is rooted in the soil of awed adoration.  It does not grow elsewhere.”  –J.I. Packer

One of the greatest things about our world can be summed up in one word: unique.  God just knew that we would need to feel awed, alive, and connected, but He crafted our hearts and minds in such a way that some of us need a beach and an ocean, others would need a mountain and a climbing pack, and still others would need a telescope and a clear night.  But I believe he gave every one of us an ability to be inspired, to be taught, and to be humbled in the most redeeming way.  I think when God made me, he thought about the many ways he would grab my attention and then inspire, teach, and humble me, and then I think he listed books right up there at the top of that list. 

This season of my life has been full of inspiration and lessons and most of them have humbled me.  I thought I would share some of the heart and soul-shaping thoughts that have been planted in my mind, written in journals and on bulletin boards, and constantly gone back to for reminders.  These words inspire me, they make me want to not stay where I am, and they remind me that the life so surely worth pursuing is found in the simplest and purest of places…

The three laws of relationship are “observation, observation, observation.”  People who give life to us are people who notice us.  They know what we love and fear.  When we work to truly notice someone else, love for them grows.  When we work to truly observe another person, in that self-forgetfulness our own soul flourishes.
-John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be

I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I’ve seen the hungry and the guns that go to war.  I have lived pain, and my life can tell you: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and the good things that a good God gives.  Why would the world need more anger, more outrage?  How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us?  Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn’t rescue the suffering.  The converse does.  The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world.
-Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

"if you learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks.  You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it..."
-Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird


"Without prayer," Catherine Doherty once wrote, "the life of the Christian dies."  Her words scare me; I have edged closer to them than I'd like to admit.  The problem is that your Christian life gets sick before it dies, and it is hard to keep praying when you are sick.."
-Lauren Winner, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis


Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget.  Their dreams become one of those "we"ll go there next time" deferrals.  The sad thing is, there is no "next time" because passing on the chance to cross over is an overall attitude toward life rather than a single decision.
-Bob Goff, Love Does

Criticize by creating.
-Michelangelo


There is very little cohesion in all of these words.  They are scattered and random, and yet I think true and inspiring.  And as I mentioned, they make me not want to stay where I am.  What things do that for you?  Where are your bits of inspiration and are you filling your life with those things?  God gave us an endless supply of wonders, words, places, and people to be inspired by, all in the hope that we would stand in awe of him.  We simply have to pursue those things... not what anyone else is pursuing, but the unique things that make each one of us stand in awed adoration.