"In the Beginning"

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty,; darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

So it begins.

Ever notice how the Bible starts? It doesn't begin with "In the beginning, there was nothing but God." It doesn't say that because nothing is something - nothing means the absence of something, and there was no absence of anything before the world was created. It was just God, and that was all that need be.

But then God decided to create something out of the lack of nothing. He chose to make something that did not need to be made, something that could only add to the existence of Himself. He made the world. He made us, you, me, that weird neighbor with all the cats, the coworker who is never to work on time.

Why?

What a question. There was a reason that God decided to make mankind, and it wasn't because He was bored. After creating the world and the animals, He said "This is good." When He got to man, He made him in his own image: the image of God, the creator, the one who was, is, and is to come because He never ends! What an amazing thing... To think that you are the image of the Lord.

It was completely intentional and practical. The world needed a caretaker, and the only one fit for the job was someone who could do the job that God does. Of course not to the same extent, but man was told to "be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." God gave us everything, and He told us to take care of it.

Some days are rough and it feels like life is falling apart, but then there are those little things that make life spring up inside you. Like a small plant bursting through the soil towards the sunlight, these small things are reminders that we are to take care of what we have because we have been given it to care for. When blessed with so much beauty, the least we can do is take the responsibility of nurturing it. ♥

Inspired

Start writing no matter what.

The water does not run until the faucet is turned on.

-Louis L'Amour

Where does inspiration come from?

I have been wondering that myself lately because frankly I have not felt the zap of lightning that we often call inspiration. To be inspired is to be filled with an irrepressible urge to do something. Not something we can control, we are left to sit around idly, waiting, praying for inspiration to come to us.

Is it possible that we are wrong?

Could inspiration be something that meets us half way? My music teacher told me something his uncle had told to him on the subject of writing. "How do I know I'm a writer?" Was the question. "Simple," was the answer, "I write."

Simple, yes, but not any less significant. To be a writer is to write. Does that mean that everything is going to be infused with wisdom and laced with allusions, parallels, metaphors that will provide the reader with understanding beyond his wildest dreams? No, indeed not. In fact, to be a writer is to, at times, fail utterly. To produce words that trail after one another like a preschool line-up, unregimented, unorganized, and barely recognizable as a line. Only sometimes, however.

Anything worth doing is worth failing at time and time again before the results start to look like something you enjoy. A painter does not stand in front of a canvass every day creating a masterpiece before turning in each night. It takes many canvasses, many do-overs, and many mistakes before the most beautiful creations surface.

Why is it so hard to think of writing this way? Perhaps because writing is not mere art, it is direct communication. It is easy to identify writing that is faulty because the words practically scream at you from the page. They are merciless. They want to be satisfied, and they are very verbal when they are not.

Regardless, it takes mistakes.Without writing, like would be a blank page. Inspiration is the rush of energy we get from drinking in the world around us. What better a place to receive inspiration than from the very words for which we desire to use this inspiration! Write. Never stop. Do it every day, and don't let yourself skip. It may seem meaningless, but let the words come. They may seem intimidating, but they know themselves, and you know them better than you realize. Allow them to fall into place as they will.

Inspiration will come to those who write. ♥