Inspire me.

This was my request today. My family and i have been ill with a virus--rather nasty one- for the last two weeks and we all are tired but surviving. So today as i sat thinking i was better and broke out in a fever and wheezing/coughing. I asked for inspiration. So i did a quick Internet search.

I read the pithy statements, i looking at the inspirational posters and saw a plethora of 'motivational stories'. They didn't cut it. I needed more. Then i noticed a blog and he (Thanks Travis at travjohnson.wordpress.com) listed 15 things that inspire him about the man Jesus. Then he opened it up for others to add their thoughts too. The list ended up like this.

1. He was born in a barn.
2. He was true to His friends, even the one that was not true to Him.
3. He loved to work with his hands and create things.
4. He committed major social faux pas because it was the right thing to do.
5. He knew how to draw a crowd and drive His point home.
6. He knew how to get away from the crowd.
7. He rejected religious thinking in favor of thinking that honored God.
8. He enjoyed eating and hanging out with people who thought differently than he did.
9. He got severely ticked off at people who claimed to be religious leaders but did everything they could to discredit the name of God so they could instead advance their own agendas.
10. He left a legacy of compassion, strength, commitment, and trust for those He led.
11. He genuinely loved people.
12. He was totally human with emotions, a rational mind, and spirituality.
13. He affirmed the Scriptures while ridiculing the "cultural baggage" that had been added to the message of Jehovah over the years.
14. He was thinking about His mom as He took His last breaths.
15. He left life as an earthly man by giving words of empowerment to ordinary humanity.
16. He empowered the masses with the words "Go" and "Love."
17. He showed me how to “live” and how to “die.”
18. He fed the hungry, and created more hunger in those who were already “full”.
19. He wept over the loss of friends.
20. His feet got dirty
21. He liked to take long walks
22. He teach Pardon to whom that hurt us because they doesn’t know the trust.
23. He taught it is more important to give and depend on Him.

Now, i thought, that is a pretty good list. It helped me. Really. But i thought we could all add one more and there was one i found missing....

24. He loved(s) me enough to die

So as i stubble and strive through this life i need only look one place, at one man. He IS my inspiration.

So, note to self, no more whining, rest up, there is work to do.