Scribblous

In general, I’m usually more attracted to the cottages — they’re more comfortable (except for an indoor swimming pool. I could really use one of those). This quote of C. S. Lewis’s from Mere Christianity, which has long been one of my favorites, makes me think a little bit differently.

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of–throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

I find that often I have a little bit of trial that I understand — I understand what needs to change, that is. Then I have a bigger trial and I’m not exactly sure why I needed to struggle so much, particularly at that time. But God knows what’s going on. He knows how he wants me to be. All I need to do is trust Him, and allow Him to work in my life.

Why is inspiration so contagious? I’ve noticed lately that if my husband is having a good day writing, gets inspired by what he’s doing, and works really hard at it, I join in. My mind starts running on new ideas, my fingers itch, and I curse the day we purchased a router that will only let one of us on the internet at a time. Luckily, I still have pen and paper. The same thing happens to my husband (relatively) when I get excited about something. So I wonder, why is it so contagious? I have some thoughts, of course, because I always have thoughts on things.

First: My husband and I are best friends. When one of us is excited, the other one is bound to join in. This makes sense on many levels, but doesn’t explain why I get excited about my things when he’s excited, not just excited about his things.

Second: Inspiration doesn’t begin with a human being. God gave to all men the Light of Christ. This light inspires us — to do good, but also (I believe) to work hard and to make an effort at things we might otherwise let fall away. When one person is full of this inspiration, anyone near them is reminded of the Light of Christ they have within them.

Third: Good writing inspires good writing. It also might be said, “writing inspires writing”, because a book doesn’t have to be any good to inspire me to try to write a better one. However for the purposes of this article, good writing inspires good writing. A good post by my husband helps me want to do better, to improve. I’m sure some of my thousands of readers have experienced the same thing with running (or some other sport). If your friend runs a race well, it makes you want to run a good one, too. Not necessarily for the competition, but because you want to succeed. The same thing happens in debate — even when you’re on the same team. People want to succeed when others are succeeding around them.

So, in conclusion: gather people around you who are your best friends, who are full of the Light of Christ, and who succeed all the time. If you can’t get that last one (my husband knows I must fail sometime), make sure they are people who make an effort at success and you can bounce off each other. It will inspire you to try harder, to reach for your dreams, and to succeed in gaining them.