Are You Inspired?

A horde of giddy teen-age girls invaded Sears one afternoon while I was trying on Armani’s latest scents! The saleslady said, “Ugh! So noisy! Boys! Boys! Boys! That’s all they think and talk about! But such are teenage girls, so full of life! I miss my teenage years. I used to be so inspired, eh!” I wondered what she meant by inspired. She probably meant “driven.” Driven to look great, to sound nice, to be better- mostly to be more attractive to the opposite sex. Such is teenage life!

Back in high school my guidance counselor said, “Take your crushes and infatuations (from another interesting Latin word) and make them your inspiration to be better. You see the better you become the more likeable you are!” It’s interesting how that little statement made a socially-skilled “studyphile” out of me, and eventually ending up dating her niece in college (and that’s another story)!

At one Bible study meeting sometime ago, I asked the group, “What is the root word of ‘inspiration’?” Everyone answered, “Inspire!” They answered right but it was not entirely accurate. Inspiration, respiration, conspire all come from one Latin word, spiritus, “breath.” To conspire means to “breathe with,” to be inspired is to be “breathed into,” and respire is to “breathe again.”

At the very heart of inspiration is the word, Spirit, which in the Christian tradition and theology, is a person in the Trinity of God. The Hebrew word for spirit is “ruach” the pronunciation of which conveys breath or breathing. The Greek word for for spirit is “pneuma” from which we get the word pneumonia, the respiratory condition. To be in-spirited means to be breathed into by God Himself.

Back in the town where my dad pastored a church for a long time, the most popular jogging and biking area was a cemetery! Well maintained grass, tree-lined asphalt roads and paths, cool breeze coming down from Rizal’s eastern hills, it was a great place to jog in the morning or late afternoon. That’s where my mom’s body lies. I jogged there a lot, and it sometimes gave me the creeps to think that I was actually surrounded by dead people! But it never failed to remind me of the story in Scripture which I read again this morning (Ezekiel 37:1-14). A prophet was taken by the Spirit of God to a valley of dry bones, a cemetery if you will, and was asked, “Can these bones live?” The Spirit breathed life over them. The bones rattled and started to come together. Tendons and flesh started to appear. Out of an entire valley of dry bones came human beings. Finally, the Spirit breathed into them and they lived.

Sometimes, we find ourselves feeling “uninspired.” Times come when things we do, jobs we hold, the relationships we treasure, and even the “religion” we uphold all seem to have become rote and lifeless. People grow tired and weak. That’s when we are encouraged to seek revival to be “inspirited” again. We are called to speak Life to our dead and dying situations with authority from the Life-giver Himself, Jesus Christ.

So breathe deeply. It is God’s pleasure to fill you with his very breath. And as we consider our individual situations, the situation of this highly troubled world and the problems of this fragmented humanity, it is important that we seek to be “inspired” by the God who wants to remake the human spirit. Having considered our situation in the bright light of day, let us claim the promise- the promise of life; the glorious impossible- to bring to life that which has fallen.

Facing Persecution

Youcef Nadarkhani, a man in Iran who is around my age, engaged in the same profession as I, is in prison and in danger of execution for upholding the same Christian faith I affirm.

Like the majority of people who live in the Middle East, Youcef Nadarkhani said while he has Muslim ancestry, he  has never been a Muslim as an adult. But he was told by an Iranian provincial court that he must recant his faith in Jesus Christ because conversion is outlawed in that country. Now Iran’s Supreme Court had ordered the trial court to determine whether Nadarkhani had been a Muslim prior to converting to Christianity.

The White House issued a statement, “Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people…We call upon the Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion.”

Christians have been persecuted throughout the centuries and it actually fueled it growth. Christ himself said, “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:10 (The Message).  “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.” John 15:18-20 NIV

Christianity is a love-driven faith. This sort of love isn’t a matter of sentiment or emotion. It isn’t necessarily something we feel but something we do.  It is a choice.  It falls within that range of things that matter most of all and we can choose it—or not. Believers in Jesus Christ, because of His love for us and our love for Him, will, even in the face of death, choose to be identified with Christ! Hebrews chapter 11 tells us of the long procession of the faithful who chose Christ over life itself.

Back when Christianity was barely 200 years old, one of the Christian bishops named, Polycarp experienced persecution his entire life as a Christian. When Polycarp refused to burn incense to the Roman Emperor, he was told by the Roman court to recant his faith. He said, “Eighty and six years I have served him, how then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour? Bring forth what thou wilt.” Polycarp was burned at the stake.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran minister who believed in the God of love participated in the German resistance against Hitler’s hate-driven Nazism was taken to a concentration camp, and eventually condemned to death by hanging. The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer … kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

Polycarp and Bonhoeffer are but two of the thousands of persecuted Christians who fueled the spread of the Christian faith.

Many of us hope and pray that Youcef Nadarkhani will be released and be given the freedom to exercise his faith he and all of us so deserve. But even in the face of death, God allows for His power, love and witness be made known in ways beyond human comprehension.