The Power of Inspiration - by Femi Fani-Kayode

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.