Hi, Christian indies!
Jamie here, with a dose of weekly encouragement!
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. – Genesis 2:7
When I learned the topic for this week’s podcast was “inspiration”, I immediately thought I remembered learning once that the word had something to do with God’s breath, or God’s breathing. So, when I set to write this article, I just had to go and look it up.
From The Online Entomology Dictionary:
“c. 1300, “immediate influence of God or a god,” especially that under which the holy books were written …The sense evolution seems to be from “breathe into” to “infuse animation or influence,” thus “affect, rouse, guide or control,” especially by divine influence.”
How wonderful!
I’d like to believe that when I am seeking inspiration, I am literally asking for a breath of life from our heavenly Father, a sort of “spiritual resuscitation.” But, it feels rather presumptuous for me to then say “this story was brought to you by the Holy Spirit,” or some such thing, as that feels awkwardly close to comparing my own works to holy writ (All scripture is given by inspiration of God, – 2 Timothy 3:16a )
But, I do believe that it is appropriate to acknowledge that God created all things, even, ad perhaps, especially, the things that we look to for inspiration, as the word is commonly used. Also, the Great God and Our Creator was responsible for our formation – for our flesh and bones, and for the very gray matter inside of our skulls that churns out all these ideas. For these things, and for a great myriad of other reasons, He alone is worthy of our worship and praise.
Check out this week’s podcast to find out where, in God’s creation, we seek out inspiration for our writing.