Where do you get inspiration?

While I was working on an independent project during college, a strong friendship developed between my adviser and me. The work we did together was often intense, and because of this I grew to admire her dedication and patience, and particularly her intelligence.

During the projects four months, I was often enlightened by her insights, and I frequently stood in awe of her accomplishments and experience. I felt as though a whole new world were opening.

Within a few weeks after I comleted the project, however, the bottom inexplicably fell out of our friendship. She refused to talk with me. Confused and frustrated, I vacillated between trying to patch things up and blaming myself for what had happened.Worst of all, the "whole new world" I'd been experiencing collapsed right along with the friendship, and it seemed to me that without this woman's guidance I could never recover it.

Several months passed without improvement. Then one day I read these words that follow one of John's visions in the book of Revelation: "And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God." n1

n1 Revelation 22:8, 9;

There it was -- clear as day! Worship God.m IT was so simple that I'd passed it by countless times as being too easy. Even John had needed reminding. And in a similar way, I needed to realize that God was the cause of the intelligence , patience, and dedication I'd admired in my adviser.

During the following months, as I studied the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesm by Mary Baker Eddy, I grew to see God's love continually flowing to man without exception or restriction. I learned to honor God, the one Mind, first, and I realized that Hem had really been teaching me all along.The new world I had begun to envision did not depend on the presence or absence of a professor, but was grounded permanently in spiritual reality.

Mrs. Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in Science and Health,m "If Spirit pervades all space, it needs no material method for the transmission of messages." n2 Enlightening ideas are inspiring not because we hear them from someone we consider important but because they come from God. They are really instances of God revealing Himself to us.

n2 Science and Health,m p. 78.

Ideas are infinite in number, type, and texture. No one has a monopoly on them. So we don't have to restrict perception of them to special times or particular company. When we consciously place God first in our affections, we can see and feed divine Mind's activity and beauty anywhere, anytime -- from the inspiration necessary for a college project to the energy and ingenuity needed to run a business or keep up with a family.

As I assimilated these discoveries, I was able to let go of the awe-struck pose I'd held for my adviser, and (unknown to me at the time) she, in turn, was gradually able to release a longstanding fear of friendships with students. The result was that when we did meet again almost two years later, we were finally free to be ourselves -- liberated from the burdens of idolatry and fear; full of respect and admiration for each other. DAILY BIBLE VERSE For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee. Luke 4:10