I was reading the faith page of a different Christian faith tradition, and I came across these questions:
Who in your church leadership inspires you?
Who in Scripture inspires you?
(I'm assuming both of these to mean at the moment, and not a long list in general).
For the first one, I thought of the pope, who I love greatly, but who currently feelings-wise I feel like I think I ought to say I'm more inspired than I am. I'm not surprised by his positions on his new encyclical on Climate Change, as he's been pretty liberal elsewise. He does, however, have the chance to sway a lot of people, and I think he's doing that for good, so that's awesome.
Really though, my #1 answer would be my worship leader at church. She's just awesome. The more I've gotten to know her, the more I can see how she lifts up others, how she's very laid back, and okay with different opinions, but still a very strong Christian. I have no doubt of her faith. I know too, from being in leadership positions myself in the past, that it's hard to be nice and make others feel appreciated even when you say "not now" or "you have to change because you're messing up"...and yet she does. I could learn a lot from her. Regardless, I've felt uplifted after every single interaction I've had with her. I've gone from viewing worship as a dreaded task to my meditation/uplift necessary time for the week. It refreshes me.
My #2 answers are the pastor at my church, and the pope. The Pope for using his large influence for good, where hopefully it will lead a lot of people to do good. And my personal pastor, because even though I don't think he's the best at preaching, it's obvious that he really cares about people and tries to meet them on their level and reach out to them. So many pastors only reach out to the extroverted. He's also humble, which is more than most pastors I know. So props to him - even though he's not perfect, I love how welcome he makes people feel. Again, bringing people up.
Who in Scripture inspires me at this moment? My answer is Jeremiah, of all people. I've never been much for the Genesis people, but I never would have expected Jeremiah. In the Bible, he laments that the world seems to go to evil around him, and where is God? He is hungering for righteousness. I guess I'm feeling kind of burnt out, and I love to see God working too and would like to see more of that too. Of course, Jeremiah gets kind of whiny about that, (and it's a good thing in my last post we're all 10s as Christians, because I'm sure no "good" Christian would dare say anything bad about a Biblical figure!) but still, I think that hungering to see God work is a good thing.
