Struggling Faith: Inspiration Breeds Anticipation

Hopefully by this point in your journey through this blog series you have begun to feel less hopeless, begun Self-work towards building your confidence, and have begun the first brave steps towards cherishing the fundamentals of living a real life, so that you can more fully trust and rely on a Higher Power to get you through when things get a little rough around the edges.  Today, we are going to use all of the great things we’ve learned thus far and take the plunge into inspiration and anticipation.

In our modern world, we tend to think of inspiration as this semi-spectral gift bestowed upon artists and writers, and perhaps really savvy business people, but reserved or held back from “just regular people”.  Most of us definitively divorce it from any divine source, apart from our feelings on it being something set apart for only a select few, because we’ve been taught that linking inspiration to the divine leads to things like “my religious text is the one, true, right, and only way because it’s the only one that is divinely inspired.”  However, the abject exclusivity which we attach to the concept of inspiration saps our self-esteem, our self-confidence, and even our ability to connect to the divine, fooling us into wholeheartedly believing that we are all “just regular people”, when in reality, those “just regular people” are a myth.  We are all artists, writers, savvy business people; we are all special, because we are all capable of inspiration.  We just need to get out of our own way and realize that.

Here’s a look at the definition of inspiration from the Oxford dictionary online:

Inspiration:  the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative;  a sudden brilliant or timely idea;  a person or thing that inspires;  divine influence

Inspiration leads to re-engagement not only with the Self, but with God(s) and the world-community.  We have spent a large portion of this blog series working towards re-engagement: re-connecting to our Selves, to God(s), and hopefully also to the people around us.  Feeling and then following up on inspiration can be an important (and surprisingly easy) way of kicking that re-engagement into high gear, and finally becoming fully engaged.

So how does that work?

First you need the self-confidence to realize that your ideas are actually good and worthy ideas.  This leads to the courage to actually follow through on those ideas, and put them out into the world so that they may act as a suitable offering to God(s), as well as actively inspire other people.  As you actively work to offer your ideas–and your talents–to God(s), while at the same time actively working to inspire others, you will find yourself more and more engaged with the world around you, both above and below.

That engagement will eventually lead you back into the wonderful world of anticipation, instead of worry and, worst of all, dread.  Imagine living in a world where you know, every day, that you put a smile on someone’s face! That is the world that I live in now, as an artist and a writer, and it is a world that you can live in, too.

There’s a famous quote by Carrie Fisher (Forever Our Princess, #CarrieOn) that I want to bring to your attention right now:

“I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.”

Every single second of your life can be art!  You just have to come to a more fulfilling understanding of what inspiration really is, and then pair that with a healthy dose of anticipation, while at the same time realizing that every single thing you do and make is actually co-created with God(s).

I want to point you to two verses from wisdom texts (aka sacred texts, aka “books revered within specific faiths because they express Truth”), so that you’ll know I’m not just talking through my hat here, or trying to get you to run over to my shop and buy copious amounts of art supplies.  The first is from the Havamal, which is one of the central texts of Norse Tradition (Heathenry; Heidhrinnry), and the second is, yet again, from the Christian Bible:

A brand kindles a brand, until it burns with flames,
Flame is kindled from fire;
Humans gain worth from other humans through renowned speech;
The foolish gain their worth from conceit.
–Havamal 57, Translation Mine

 

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:  Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  –Romans 12:1, The Message

Let’s look at that Biblical passage through a Pagan lens, to quell any squirming that might be going on out there:

So here’s what I want you to do, God(s)/Goddess helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God(s)/Goddess as an offering.  Embracing what God(s)/Goddess does for you is the best thing you can do for Them.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to this modern, mundane world that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God(s)/Goddess.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what They want from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the modern, mundane world around you, always dragging you down to its level of idiocy, God(s)/Goddess brings the best out of you, developing the fundamentals of love, peace, and joy in you and expanding your ability to hope.

Turning your entire life into a work of art might seem like a tall order right now, so let’s start with something simple:  I want you to make a simple piece of art, and then share it with other people.  Download the free mini-kit linked below, and then create your very own social media meme with just one word: HOPE.  If you’re not savvy with digital art programs, that’s okay:  make a free account at canva.org.  It’s easy, it’s free, and most importantly, it’s fun!  Once you’ve created your meme, upload it to Facebook (or wherever you hang out online), and be sure to share it with us over at Iaconagraphy! 

Notice how your friends and family react.  Did you get a like?  A smiley-face? Maybe even a heart?  Every single one of those is a smile you put on someone else’s face; a ray of hope you caused to shine in someone else’s life.  Congratulations: you’re learning to embrace your artist within!

But what does any of that have to do with anticipation?  Take a moment to refer back to the two wisdom texts I quoted a moment ago.  Once we realize that inspiration occurs both inside us and from outside of us all at the same time, it lights a fire in us.  In the Welsh Tradition, this is called Awen; the Irish call it Imbas.  Once that fire is lit, like brand kindling brand and flame kindling flame, it is difficult not to let it spread; we come to want to spread it; to catch the world on fire with that feeling.  Once we get to that point, it is difficult not to look forward to things in life.  It creates an eagerness in us, which quickly turns into anticipation.  That newfound eager expectancy is the very definition of hope.

I hope that fire has been kindled in you today!  Next week, we’ll wrap up this blog series with one final post:  A Faith Reborn.  I look forward to sharing with you then!