Inspiration manifests itself in so many ways that it can be nearly impossible to recognize if we don't make a conscious effort to look for them.
It can be in an overwhelming feeling of certainty when all intellectual avenues point to failure or mediocrity.
Inspiration can lead one to dedicate their valuable and ever-diminishing time on this earth to write a story that touches the lives of those who read it.
It can be dangerous-- calling people with little or no experience into foreign fields of work; but inspiration holds true, giving them courage and purpose even when their endeavors or lives are claimed embracing their calling.
It wills people into "unimpressive" professions-- but we find these people are usually the ones responsible for molding the minds and hearts of whole generations of students.
Our modern society tells us that inspiration has politically correct names-- hunch, impulse, enthusiasm, insight, and whim.
It's a precaution that is understandable, as some of the most horrifying events in the course of history have followed a claim of inspiration from a person of influence when they've called them "dreams" or "revelations."
The corruption of language and the story of the human condition have made it difficult to decipher the temptation of personal gain and selfishness from authentic revelation about our purpose in life. It is a horrifyingly effective deterrent to living a life blessed by genuine inspiration.
Instead of understanding hunches and enthusiasm as symptoms of inspiration, we view them as distractions from the steadiness of a well-paying job; termites on the foundation of the stability we crave in our lives; emotional flaws in our otherwise sound, calculated, stone-cold logic. This predominating attitude leads to measurable productivity on the assembly line, bigger bottom lines, and an American identity as "workers."
Having more resources allows for some pretty great things....but the lie is embedded in the idea that work and stability are ALL there is to life.
The blessing of inspiration is what welds together the confluence of talent, gifting, personality, life experience, and opportunity. It doesn't always demand a career shift, but it does demand a personal paradigm shift-- away from self, toward others.
It's a constant series of decisions to do this, not just a one-time, cure-all that serves as a one-way ticket to a personal Nirvana.
Often enough vein ambition masquerades as inspiration by white-washing this intention with the promise of more resources to give away with larger profits, or upon the condition that power and influence is obtained before a person or organization can truly devote itself to helping others in some grand method.
Meanwhile, authentic awakenings and inspiration produces an outcome of sincere and lasting value. It proliferates kindness and spreads self-awareness to everyone who accepts it. The end game is a measure of personal peace, living a life kindled by inspiration as it is passed to others who wish to live it.
I'm taking this time to encourage you to search yourself for inspiration. You likely won't have to go very far to find it. Once you find it, you'll see that you have enough strength to put it into action, access to the resources (people, money, supplies) to do it, and the blessings of influence to make it endure.
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