‘Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.’

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 

I once heard someone say that all action comes from either inspiration or desperation. I look at the times I have made decisions in my life  (big and small) and I think there is definitely a lot of truth to this statement. The definition for the word inspiration is ‘the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.’ The definition for the word desperation is ‘a state of despair, typically one which results in rash or extreme behavior’. One of these sounds like a much more comfortable state than the other. 

During this season of Lent, inspiration vs. desperation makes me think about Jesus and how it must have felt trying to get people to listen, understand and embrace his message. Did he ever feel frustrated or overwhelmed or panicked? Did he always know that his time in a human body would come to an end at a young age with betrayal and suffering? If so, did he move through life in part with a feeling of desperation knowing that he had a limited amount of time to accomplish what he needed to accomplish? 

These questions of course lead me to more questions. Does it matter if the things we do are done out of inspiration or desperation? Does the energy behind the act affect the outcome? 

It seems that inspiration is fueled by love, hope and joy while desperation is more often fueled by fear, panic and despair. With this in mind I tend to believe that Jesus moved through his earthly life in a state of inspiration, even in the face of death. I believe he was constantly inspired by his love for God and his love for people to keep moving forward finding ways to share God’s love with the world. 

I wonder how different our world would be if everyone moved through life motivated by love over fear and hope over panic. I hope we all find ways to live inspired. Life can be stressful and chaotic and it can seem hard to keep up. What we can always rely on is the fact that when we do things in Love we are living as God has instructed us to live. And living as God’s love seems very inspiring. Thankfully God is always present to help us move from moments of panic to moments of peace and hopefully we can all find ways to be there for each other in these moments as well.