Be Inspired…

Arthur Goode shares ways you can be inspired in life, drawing from his days of teaching and love of football.

In the olden days when I used to teach in primary schools I used to take the children outside to spend the day learning about the environment. I had a whole range of activities centred around life and living things, and one was the ‘Bug Walk’. In a line with hands on the shoulders of the person in front, we would walk slowly around the wood with our eyes down. The idea was to get the perspective from an insect. You’ve heard of bird’s eye – this was bug’s eye.

Perspective is an important thing, and some of us do get drawn into walking through life with our eyes down, seeing only one aspect – and that will probably be work, problems, things to do, issues to fix. There are times when we need to be eyes down and focussed, but this perspective can all too easily take over at the expense of all else.

What gives you inspiration? What lifts your eyes up from the mundane and the everyday, from the limitations and the humdrum, up to the skies? To what might be? How do you take time out to smell the roses, admire the view, take in the big picture?

The answer to that probably lies in your learning style. Of the many lists of learning styles people have come up with I like the 8 categories widely used in schools: the Linguistic Learner for whom the written or spoken word is most helpful, the Naturalist (being in the natural world), the Musical Learner, the Kinesthetic Learner who likes doing, the Visual or Spatial Learner, the Logical Learner, the Interpersonal Learner (learning in a group) and the Intrapersonal Learner (preferring to learn alone).

Alternatively you could ask what gives you life? Is it being outdoors, or with other people, or on your own. Is it art, or music, or a great story?

Often we find inspiration from others – through biographies or biopics, or meeting our heroes. Speeches can rouse people, as can a good preach on a Sunday morning. We may go looking for such inspiration, or it may happen to us along the way – a pleasant surprise or an occasion of grace from above. Either way we need it.

Footballers need it too. We at Home Park have the legendary number 12 shirt set apart in honour of the Green Army, the amazing fan base that turns out in number on a Saturday and follows them all over the country giving their support. Few other clubs can boast such a following. And not only does it inspire the team (particularly on a cold wet afternoon away from home) it also raises their eyes up from their own circumstances to the bigger picture, and the responsibility they have to play for the shirt, and for those cheering them on.

It reminds me of a verse in Hebrews that talks of a cloud of heavenly witnesses who cheer us on in life, bringing encouragement, strength and most of all perhaps inspiration.

I believe that in life we were created with eternity in our hearts, and our identity finds it’s home in the truth that we are born with destiny written into our spiritual DNA. That we are more than just cells, water and chemical reactions. It is in those moments of inspiration that I am reminded of this most clearly – be it on the moors as the sun sets over the hills, by the sea as the waves crash in, amongst the crowd as the winning goal goes in, standing shoulder to shoulder with people in worship on a Sunday, or the emotional connection with a family as I share in that precious but painful moment in saying goodbye to a loved one.

And we need to connect with that bigger perspective as an antidote to the attrition day to day life can bring on our souls. It can weigh our heads down so all we can see is the path below our feet. The direction we are going in and the scenery that passes us by can all get lost with our heads held low. But most of all is the effect that inspiration can bring to our hearts which has the most power to restore. To connect us with our true identity and remind us who we really are. To lift us and encourage us. Find out how and where you get inspiration and press into it, that it might bring life to your soul, joy to your heart and strength to your bones!

The poet William Blake was obviously someone who found that inspiration in nature. Here is a verse from his poem ‘Auguries of Innocence’:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.”