Article written by former minister, Femi Olukayode. Read below...
Dark is the heart that weeps and bleeds. Pure is the spirit that overcomes pain. Free is the soul that activates faith. Pure is the joy that true love brings. Yet most important of all is the power of inspiration. That grace and strength that encouraging words, steeped in knowledge and experience, bring. We can only heal and help those in pain when we ourselves once experienced that pain. We can only shed light in darkness when we ourselves once walked in that darkness.
We can only lift others up
when we ourselves have once been down. Inspirational prose is like
speaking in tongues to the unlettered- they cannot possibly understand
or appreciate it. They know not it’s value and they have no use for it’s
strength. Like Shakespeare once said, to them, ‘’tis caviar to the
general’’.
Yet to refined souls and
sensitive spirits it is everything. It is the shield that protects and
preserves our hearts, thoughts and emotions- it is the very essence of
our being.
To the learned and
enlightened it is like the burning fire, bringing in glory and blessings
and ushering in the marvellous heat of the golden sun.
It inspires, it brings
laughter, it brings tears of joy. It brings hope even to the most
hopeless and it ushers in a rustic and complex form of spiritual
resurrection and rejuvanation. That is why it is wise and good to learn
from our experiences and share it with others.
One short and encouraging
note to a despairing soul may well save a life. One kind smile or a few
words laced in love may well give cause for those who have lost all hope
to think again and give life another chance.
One tiny expression of
compassion or passion and one small gesture of kindness, support and
love to even the most unlovable may change them forever.
A helping hand extended to a
complete stranger may inspire that stranger to have faith in humanity
and to have an encounter with God.
May those that understand
the essence of these words never lose sight of this glaring veracity.
May those who laugh to scorn the power of prose and the beauty of the
word continue to wallow in their abject poverty of the mind and dearth
of knowledge and understanding.
In
all, strive to love, to care for others, to show compassion, to be
merciful, to be kind, to be loving, to be forgiving and most important
of all seek to inspire and bring hope to others.
An encouraging smile to the
weakest and most frightened amongst us at the most unexpected moment
could do it. Or perhaps an unexpected phone call to a long lost friend.
Whatever it takes give
someone joy, particularly the lost, those in pain and the
broken-hearted, that our Lord in heaven, the God of mercy and truth,
may know your worth. This is indeed God's work and it is a glaring
expression of the power of inspiration.