Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I had a great idea for a blog post. Then I, by the grace of God, managed to fall asleep and stay asleep most of the night (that’s pretty miraculous in my life), and I woke up without a single clue as to what the inspiring post was about.
Well, I had one clue.
It was a video one of my alumni sent me right after she got her wisdom teeth out. I knew I wanted to write something about Maggie saying, “You are my inspiration. My inspiration!” In a follow up video she says, “And I knew that even before I got my wisdom teeth removed… I guess that was the wisdom part.” I’ve saved both videos on my phone and watched them countless times in the past few days.
Just before getting her wisdom teeth out, this gem of a human being sent me a huge long message about how she was convicted that people in the world didn’t say “I love you” to others enough. Why hold it in, folks? I’ve written about Valerie from V for Vendetta multiple times before, but that message is so vital: you are loved. So deeply, and so beautifully. I want you to hear it from me right now, dear reader: I love you.
Maggie said I was her inspiration and that I taught her a lot. The truth is, I’ve probably learned more from her about how to listen to the Holy Spirit and persist in obedience to Jesus and honor the Father with my life than any sum total of lessons she’s had from me. Man, that kid is awesome. I learn from all of my students – they really do (in the totally genuine not cliche way) inspire me.
Earlier this week, a different kid sent me a meme of a bunch of different delicious potato products with the caption, “If you can do this with a potato, imagine what God can do with you,” and he then proceeded to refer to me as “Mother Potato.” Another alumni called me on Tuesday and spent time encouraging me in my pursuit of Jesus as I encourage her in hers; we even spent ten minutes on the call just praying with each other.
Wednesday had a lot of processing as the school released some decisions about our response to the German regulations for schools regathering. There’s still more info to come, and all BFA has still got strictly online classes this coming week, but my body, soul, and spirit all took a hit as I thought through how I can best continue to educate my students scattered around the world. Fortunately, Wednesday afternoon, my body finally got some help from Anja again.
I’d cancelled four weeks of physio sessions related to corona contact and concerns, but I’d kept up lots of walking on my treadmill in the month of physical isolation. That activity had taken a toll on my muscles, and I was losing sleep to spasms reacting to the tight hamstrings. Anja spent nearly the whole hour digging into my IT band. It was tight. And not in the cool way like my students describe my class (in my dreams). I’ve not been able to maintain my 24 minute record since achieving it for a few days, but I’m still working hard to get back there.
Brandi was a big encouragement to me in my holistic health as, after my physio session, she fed me and listened to a bit of the emotional and spiritual insanity I’ve been going through this past month.
Women like Maggie, Anja, and Brandi were just some of the people who kept me going this week. I love you three so much! I also love each of the other alumni who said nice things to me, the housemates and neighbors who bought me groceries and hung out with me at a legal physical distance, the students who asked me how I was doing when I sent them emails to follow up with school work. There have been a lot of hard, honest confessions on my blog in the past couple months, and I still had some emotional lows this week, but I really want to celebrate the people who do inspire me.
When I asked Maggie if I could call out her awesomeness and idea to tell the world I love her and tell other people I love them, she responded by saying she had a secret blog where she wrote about women who inspired her. This kid is gold. I asked for the link and noticed the banner is a picture of a sunset out my window that I sent to her. Then, you guys, she freaking wrote a post about me.
I love this kid so much. I love her because she loves Jesus and she loves others. She inspires me, and what a beautiful cycle if we can keep sharing and extending love.
Maybe even you’ve been inspired by me – can I ask you to do something if that’s true? Can you tell someone you love them? Can I inspire you to love one person – maybe even two – today by actually doing the brave act of telling them that you love them?
