Who, or what, inspires you?

I’m not talking about the physical act of breathing in (which is also known as inspiration, or inhaling.) I’m talking about things that motivate you, that give you enthusiasm and increased energy and keep you going in the right direction when maybe you don’t much feel like it. One dictionary definition of inspiration is “stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.” What are those things or people which inspire you?

Here is a list of things which inspire me, in no particular order.

Faithfulness
Quiet, steadfast faithfulness inspires me to be faithful to God. Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit, but is often overlooked in favour of more ‘showy’ attributes. Faithfulness is reliable and committed, often doing mundane things, things which are repetitive or unglamorous but which need doing. It’s much easier to start things than it is to finish them, but faithfulness is the thing which keeps people going.

Perseverance
I guess this is allied to faithfulness. Ongoing perseverance inspires me. I think there is such a lot to be said for stickability in our society which wants instant solutions and quick fixes. I listen to musicians’ skills and understand that a great deal of persistence and practice have gone into the final sound I benefit from. No amount of talent can make up for perseverance.

Eugene Peterson, in his excellent book ‘Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places’, says that “in the Christian way, patience and urgency are yoked… There are no shortcuts to becoming the people we are created to be.” Perseverance understands that and doesn’t give up. Paul tells us, in 1 Corinthians 13, that love doesn’t give up. Most qualities we admire are mixed with perseverance to make them even better!

Congruent living
I’m not talking about the mathematical sense of the word here, but about the quality of agreeing and living a life that is appropriate to one’s beliefs. I guess I see this as the opposite of hypocrisy, where someone says one thing but does another. Congruent living is ‘practising what you preach‘; it’s about living out one’s faith in every situation, about having consistency in one’s lifestyle. That kind of living is really attractive. I’m sure we all know people who inspire us because they have integrity in how they live; they are not just ‘putting on a show’. They are real – flawed people, maybe, but people who are striving for honesty and to integrate God into every part of their lives. Tim Hughes’s song ‘Everything’ captures this idea so vividly – God in every part of our living.

Integrity
So much of life is spent wearing a mask. We learn early on in life how to fit in, but so often that is at the expense of honesty. People who combine loving behaviour with honesty and integrity inspire me. They show graciousness but don’t pretend to be something they’re not.

Vulnerability
Vulnerability is not a very popular idea, since it means ‘capable of being wounded or hurt’ and we don’t much like being hurt. But people who are real, who live honest lives, will get hurt and we actually need to see that being wounded is not the end of the story. We serve a God who uses broken people. Hebrews 11 talks about those ‘whose weakness was turned to strength’ – if we only ever see raw strength, how will we ever learn from weakness?

Those who allow us to see their imperfections but who understand that God is transforming us inspire me far more than those who pretend they have already made it. 1 John 1 says “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” That’s the kind of vulnerability I’m talking about – allowing others to see our weaknesses and sharing the struggles we face so that we can all learn to rely on God’s love and grace more and more.

Michelangelo, the famous Renaissance artist and sculptor, was responsible for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which includes nine scenes from the book of Genesis. The work is amongst Michalangelo’s greatest and must have been extremely difficult to do, given the height of the ceiling (it took four years to complete, which gives some inkling as to the size of the task!) In order to reach the chapel’s ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own scaffold, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall near the top of the windows, rather than being built up from the floor which would have involved a massive structure and would have meant that the chapel was unavailable for services. Only half the building was scaffolded at a time and the platform was moved as the painting was done in stages.

Painting Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church was by no means as difficult a task as painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but it did give us an insight into working at heights. Scaffolding is much easier to put together these days:

We even had a paint-spraying machine to help us in the main hall and we weren’t painting intricate designs.

But in one thing, we perhaps understand Michelangelo. When people discovered the attention to detail he had put in to his work, detail which would never be seen by the majority of people, he is reputed to have replied, “God sees it.”

That kind of attention to detail – which could be labelled perfectionism – was something people in Goldthorpe demonstrated time and time again. Brushstrokes had to be just right. Each paint stain had to be removed by hand from the wooden floor. Look at this picture of people working on the floor in the main hall – a floor that is now covered by carpet and chairs…

Why do people do this? Why do we care so much about what things look like?

We believe God sees everything that we do and that He deserves the best. Every coat of paint or varnish, every little bit of cleaning, were labours of love. They were, at times, physically demanding. They were, at times, emotionally draining. But we believe God is worth our best.

Our best may always fall short of perfection. But we continue to aim high.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col 3:17)

One of my favourite Bible stories is that of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). It’s not just the drama of the story or the significance of music in worship or the image of Christ as the fourth person in the furnace which capture my imagination, though all of these things are there. What I like most about the story is the statement they make to the king:

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

That bold statement of faith inspires me every time I read it. That’s the kind of faith I want. I want to be able to say ‘even if…’ and mean it. I want to be able to bless God’s name not only ‘when the world’s all as it should be’ but ‘on the road marked with suffering’, as Matt Redman so eloquently puts it in the song ‘Blessed Be Your Name’. I want to be able to say, with Habakkuk,

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.” (Hab 3:17-18)

I want the kind of faith that is not swayed by disappointment or adversity or pain or hurt. I want to be able to hold on to God even when I can’t see Him or feel His presence or understand what He’s doing. I want that ‘even if’ kind of faith that will not be shaken.

Other people say this far more eloquently than I ever could. Kutless, in their song ‘I’m Still Yours’ ask the questions I regularly ask:

“When my life is not what I expected
The plans I made have failed
When there’s nothing left to steal me away
Will You be enough for me?
Will my broken heart still sing?”

Casting Crowns, in their song ‘Praise You In the Storm’ say “You are who You are
no matter where I am”. It’s that kind of tenacious faith I want, a faith that rests secure in who God is. Circumstances can be favourable or unfavourable, but God remains true.

What inspires me about all these Bible stories and songs is the knowledge that we have a choice in these matters. We choose to believe. We choose to sing. We choose to obey. We may well not feel like doing any of those things, but the kind of faith that holds on to God no matter what makes choices based on a knowledge of God, rather than on personal feelings.

“When the tears fall
Still I will sing to You
I will praise You
Jesus, I will praise You
Through the suffering
Still I will sing to You
When the laughter fails to comfort
When my heart aches, Lord, You’ll be there
When confusion is all around me
And the darkness is my closest friend
Still I’ll praise You
Jesus, praise You.”
(Tim Hughes, ‘When the Tears Fall’)

That’s the kind of faith I want to have…

Some people may be wondering what is next for us as a church now that the ‘high’ of the Open Day on 3rd July is over. Naively we may expect to remain on a spiritual mountain for some time with God’s blessing washing over us. Somehow I don’t think that is the way life works…

In 1 Kings 19, we find Elijah not revelling in the victory he has seen God perform at Mount Carmel (recorded in the previous chapter) but lying under a broom tree in despair, asking God to take his life. We may wonder at the extremes of this emotion (if God was able to deal with the prophets of Baal by sending fire on the sacrifice, surely He is able to deal with the king Ahab and queen Jezebel and their threat to kill Elijah?), but in reality, life is full of climaxes that are followed by anticlimaxes.

Some of this is perfectly natural. Maya Angelou said that ‘achievement brings its own anticlimax.’ C.S. Lewis (in ‘The Screwtape Letters’) talks about life having ‘a series of troughs and peaks’. Elijah, in 1 Kings 18, has risen to the challenge and has experienced the body’s natural hormone, adrenaline, coursing through his veins. When adrenaline is produced in the body, it stimulates the heart-rate, dilates blood vessels and air passages, produces a rise in blood sugar, gives increased metabolic rate and prepares us for action. Adrenaline is naturally produced in high-stress or physically exhilarating situations. It’s commonly called the ‘fight or flight’ hormone, equipping us to either run away from the trouble or to stand and fight. It’s God’s provision for us in times of need.

But when the stressful situation is reduced, what happens? The ‘parasympathetic reaction’ kicks in and the body returns to normal. It needs to: we can’t sustain life at the level adrenaline provides and it’s dangerous if we become addicted to adrenaline or think that life is always lived on the mountain top…

God provides for Elijah in 1 Kings 19. He uses miraculous means (sending an angel to Him and using nature in different ways), but the means He uses vary according to the situation and on this occasion, the very mundane provision of sleep and food is recorded as being just as important as the revelation of God Elijah experiences. Let’s not scorn the basics.

God comes to Elijah afresh, listening to his woes, giving him the space to tell God how he feels (such a privilege available to us all!) He gives Him the one thing He has promised all His people – His presence. But this time, God’s presence does not come with great thunder. God is not in the wind. He’s not in the earthquake. He’s not in the fire. He comes in a ‘gentle whisper’, in a ‘still, small voice’.

We need to seek God’s presence above everything else. C.S. Lewis says that as long as we live on earth, ‘periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty.’ We need to recognise that and seek God at all times.

“It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it [man] is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be,” C.S. Lewis writes. So if you are feeling that your life is in a ‘trough period’ right now, if you are feeling the anticlimax of months of hard work at St Mark’s, don’t despair. God is still with you and His gentle whisper is just as capable of sustaining you as His loud shouts. Even when you cannot hear Him at all, He is still there. (Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 28:20)

Welcome to the new blog of Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church! Many of you will have read about our journey of faith in moving from Beever Street to Market Street and a bigger church building. You can read more about that at our other blog:

http://stmarksgoldthorpe.blogspot.com/ (The link at the side will take you directly there)

This blog will be looking at our life in the new building and where we’re going from here!

Here’s the building:

Isaiah says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Is 43:19) Our prayer as a church is that we can be part of what God is doing in Goldthorpe and the Dearne Valley and that we can be streams in the wastelands. May God help us all to be part of the ‘new thing’ He is involved in.