One sunny afternoon my friend, John Will Voss and I were roaming around Deepstep creek. John Will was not only a few years older than I, but also more adventuresome. As we trudged through ruins of the millpond dam, he spotted a pool near a cleft in the dam. Blue-gill Bream were tooling around in there. He said, “Look! those are good sized Bream!” Almost instinctively he said, “Let’s see if we can catch one.” I said, “We don’t have any fish bait.” Nearby was an abandoned Tupelo limb on which someone had tied a fishline and hook. John Will said, “We’ll create some fish bait. On your jeans is a stray cotton string in that tear on your pocket. We’ll use that!” I didn’t say anything, but I was as skeptical as horse regarding a new rider.
John Will snagged the white cotton string, rubbed it around in his palms creating a fluffy puff; satisfied, he fastened it to the fish hook. As he dangled it into the water, a couple of fish examined it—-not carefully enough—-it hung there for a bit, then suddenly one nabbed it! John Will set the hook and pulled the fish out of the water. Since we hadn’t come to fish, and weren’t prepared to keep fish, that nice Bream became “catch and release.
My doubting that we could catch a fish with inspired bait was eclipsed by John Will’s inspiration. Our need for fish bait was fulfilled by his on-the-spot ingenuity. The world is filled with useful devices that make our lives happy, healthy, and helpful—because of inspiration. I think of the ubiquitous “Post It Notes.” A church choir member’s Inspiration is behind its creation. He wanted to avoid “dog-ears” on his hymnal marking selected hymns for the day. He remembered that his lab crew at work was trying to create adhesive that would allow quick release. He took some of the trial paper to choir practice; It worked his idea caught on. Post-it notes was born.
You could easily make an impressive list of things we depend on daily that somewhere, sometime, someone said, “It cannot be done!” In the 1959 film, “Hole in the Head,” Frank Sinatra sang the now famous lines “…You’ve got High Hopes,” A key line in the song reiterates the value of inspiration; When troubles call, and your back’s to the wall— There a lot to be learned, that wall could fall. Inspiration produces myriad possibilities.
Sometimes we seem to be at our wits end, like Elijah, the prophet. He had offended Queen Jezebel—who vowed to kill him—he came to the conclusion that “I am the only one left” In that low moment, he found inspirationn. Inspiration puts imagination to work. Jesus taught his followers that if they believe, there is “Nothing you can’t do!” John Wesley’s Siren call was “The world is my Parish” —an awesome inspiration—now untold millions bear the name “Methodist.” Wesley had endless confidence that not only did everyone need God’s grace, but also it could be made available throughout humanity. His was not simple imagination, it was imagination powered by confidence. Inspiration is a derivative, theologically, of Spirit filled.
©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2023