What to do when there’s no inspiration?

It’s been kind of a rough week for me mentally, if you couldn’t draw that conclusion from the title. This may be a short blog, oops. They’ll get better, I promise. 

I think this is an important topic to talk about because there are days when even though we don’t want it to, the world keeps spinning. Sometimes that happens when we’re working on a fun thing, like when we have something that we’ve chosen to do not because it’s easy or even productive toward everyday life, but because we feel pulled, called to do, and yet it sits there not getting done (for the sake of metaphor, let’s say a blog. Definitely not something I’ve ever dealt with…).

And there are other, more vital things like providing for a family and/or doing a job and doing it well as we’re called to do that just feel impossible. I hope I’m not alone in saying that with most areas of my life I’ve stubbornly sat down and asked “is it even worth it? How does the benefit of doing this thing compare to the benefits of not doing this thing?” There are many, many times I’ve been frustrated to the point of not wanting to push any further.

My question is this: what do pastors do when they’re exhausted, and the idea of getting up in front of hundreds of people and passionately teaching the Word feels impossible? The reason I jumped to ministry is because if you profess Christ, you’re a pastor, right? Guys and girls alike, if we’ve publicly committed to Jesus we’re teaching others in some aspect, be it getting up and talking in front of people or just living life. No particular order there. Don’t read too deep into that because neither one is more important than the other. But there are other examples we could use, like what does a blog writer do when homework and just life in general is taking all his effort, and he has some time but not the energy to do what he really wants to do? How do we go on being examples when it’s hard to stay focused because of everything that’s going on?

Well, I think a fair baseline to draw is that a certain amount of self-denial is going to have to happen for anything to get done. But unmotivated workers don’t usually put forth their highest quality work. So how does the passionate speaker do it again and again? How does the servant of God consistently show the good of Jesus?

To answer this, I asked a few ministers in my life for their lack-of-inspiration escape plans. Something surprised me that probably shouldn’t have: every single one of the ministers I talked to brought the topic full circle back to God. Specifically, individual verses in the Bible. Each one. Good ministers, huh. One of those good ministers, Evan Burkett, said this:

“whenever I feel disconnected, the reason normally is that I’m spending all my time in books other than the Bible.”

Oof, amiright? Convictions for me. That means school books, books about “how to be a better Christian,” and it includes everything in between.

This brings me to my short main point, which is super simple:

God doesn’t check out when we do.

Genesis 35:3: “let us go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone”

 If our bodies quit, God doesn’t. Fortunately, when we come back after a hiatus of failure, God is still there. And he didn’t leave when we leave.

I find so much peace in that.

And so, when God seems like a difficult subject to communicate, I promise you he’s still there. I’m not saying you’re wrong for acknowledging that it’s difficult, because you’re not. I’m not saying there aren’t obstacles, because there are. But it doesn’t mean God isn’t there. Loving you, cheering you on. That’s cool.

I’ll leave you with what Tom, another good minister who spoke into my life, uses as his strategy when “uninspiration” creeps at his door. Read this from the perspective of a person who has the choice between running toward God and sitting and accepting the barriers that have been placed between you and him. I could go off about this, but I encourage you to draw your own conclusions. Read it slow. It hit me hard.

Philippians 2:1-8

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Sprit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others as more important than yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!

I challenge you to challenge yourself with that verse. I'm intimidated by it, to be honest. Applying this to lack of inspiration? It's tough. And convicting. But man, I'm thankful for a God that promises to never leave, even if I never figure it out.

~m