One day, on one of my numerous runs to the Post Office, the car guard at the parking lot sheepishly approached.
And in the commonplace fashion of an interlace of lechery and, I truly believe, genuine purpose that is in the fabric of and the current on-going interaction from man to woman, boy to girl in my country today, he proceeded with his multi-purposed intention: One to see if he can score a girl, the other, to see if he can score a job but unwilling to prioritise the latter over the former for the sake of credible decency.
“You come here quite a lot huh?,
“Yes I do. I have some things to post.”
“So what do you do?”
“I work from home.”
“Work from home huh?” Lingering.“Like, what do you do there?”
With the undressing stare of his eyes still on me, I replied, “making clothes and some other things,” fading into an inaudible introverted mumble.
He persisted, “so do you have any work for me. I can come work for you, doing whatever.”
“Oh no, I’m not in a position to employ anybody. What I do is really a one man gig.”
He persisted, I declined, he persisted and I persisted in my decline.
What became apparent to me in this exchange, leering aside, was that this man did not necessarily want to be a car guard and desired to do more with his life but did not know what. Subsequently anything he perceived as better, he attached himself to it hoping that he would be part of something that matters and that would make him feel like he was doing something meaningful.
I stopped fleeing the scene of his persistence and decided to stay in the moment. Slow deep breath in and slow deep breath out, I looked him in the eye and asked, “What do you want to do with your life though?”
His reply was a loosely pieced together quilt of half attempts that, I guess, had amounted to little hence his current position as an unfulfilled post office car guard. The mood and focus steered and fashioned a new possibility. In short, I made a few suggestions of things he could do that would possibly get his wheels rolling away from being where he was to somewhere that was not necessarily his dream but would help him build the life he imagines would fulfill him. I directed him to God for guidance and prayed for him. We parted ways.
The next time I saw him, he was still there, still that guy with that same intent look and the same motives. Only this time he tried to hold me accountable to a job I had allegedly promised him. Annoyed, I reminded him of the details of our previous conversation, making it clear, “I did not promise you a job.”
We do this as human beings. Out of touch with our purpose and lacking clarity of our own unique life vision, calling and path, we seek something to latch onto that we see working regardless of what little we can contribute to it or whether we are supposed to be a part of it because it seems like it is a working success. Inspired by someone or a team of people and what they are doing in getting on with responding to their calling, our understanding is that we have to be associated with them, involved and have a part in what they are doing. However, the more I have paid attention, God has shown me something different about the things that strum our strings, stirring at deeply lodged desires inside of us, bringing a flurry of vibrant excitement/possibilities about life to the surface of our awareness.
Inspiration is the voice of God [a message, a revelation, an epiphany]. It is a message pointing attention to that which we deeply desire, and essentially that which we associate with joyful fulfilment and consequently, true success of a life worth living. It is a whisper from God urging us to pray, to begin to seek His dream; His divine and unique direction for our lives and get on with the harkening to the call of it. It is an arrow pointing which direction to take.
What it is, is a divine awakening to the reason you were created and born and you recognise it because it was embedded inside you before you were born. What it is not is a cue to piggyback onto others’ journeys that, having nothing to do with yours, have nonetheless stirred and inspired admiration inside. It is God’s voice witnessing that in you also, ‘I have planted glorious and great things for you to birth,’ things that will in turn inspire others watching to also get on with birthing their own unique fruit of God planted greatness.