Inspired By...

I have thrown these words out a few times in the last week, mostly in jest (ever seen the youtube video “Kittens inspired by Kittens”?), but this morning I want to take a moment and reflect on some inspiration from this past year. A year ago today my Grandma died. Two weeks later one of my friend's from high school had stillborn twins. Two weeks later, a dear friend of 22 died of a sudden heart attack. These things affected me deeply. But as I reflect on them today, I realize how the Lord used these three events to inspire me. The number one definition for “inspire” is, “to affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence.” The events of last summer affected me deeply, but they also guided me to the point of no return in recognizing that this life is short, and people are dying every day without ever hearing the name of Jesus. How can I claim to serve an all loving God and still sit by in peace knowing there are people dying without ever knowing Truth? These events inspired in me a fear-conquering desire to go-for the sake of His name.Today, a year later, I am sitting in South Asia writing this blog post. I have been here two months and even in that short amount of time, if I am honest, I will say that I have already become slightly desensitized to the darkness and lostness and death around me. My first week here I shared the Truth with several people. In the last month I have not spoken the Truth to one lost person. Granted, I don't know the language of the majority of the people here and since that first week, I have been in a village where English is not as common. But the fact remains that I have lost my initial passion, my initial inspiration. Lord, help me-I want to be “Sarah inspired by Jesus”.This day, the anniversary of my Grandma's death, I am coming back to inspiration-His divine influence. I look back over this past year and see His hand leading me and guiding me, inspiring me to go and make His name known, and I end this blog post to go and run with endurance this race He has guided me to. It may feel like a marathon but even marathons have an ending. And when I cross that finish line I want to be sore. I want to feel like I ran hard. I want to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”.