Earlier this year, I took up jogging, something I had never done before in my life. I have always been active but actual jogging – no way. I needed some inspiration to get going so I found a suitable podcast and for 8 weeks followed the programme successfully. The eighth week was particularly inspirational as it used the launch and landing of the space shuttle Discovery to start and end the run.  There was a real sense of achievement after running for 30 minutes nonstop for the first time.

We all need inspiration to help us in our lives. Over the years, many people, Christians and non, have inspired me to live better, to make the most of my life and to give to the world.

However, as Christians we need also to be inspirational. There is so much negativity about Christians and the Church that when people come across someone who has an authentic faith being lived out on a daily basis, it becomes a source of comment, question and hopefully helps someone towards salvation. I know that was very important when we got saved over 30 years ago. The friends who had been encouraging us took us to a water baptism service. It was the first time we had been to a full immersion baptism. I was struck by the fact that the people in this church were getting a lot more from life, church and their Christianity than I certainly was. It was an important step along the way.

We all impact those around us both positively and negatively with our words, actions and attitudes, often quite unrealised. We have a friend in South Africa who has an amazing testimony of God’s deliverance and salvation from drug abuse, prostitution and a lifestyle of abuse.  We were all in our home group one day when she commented that looking at the married couples had really helped her realise that marriage could work. Her experience of marriage had not been good, yet observing the marriages of various older couples – not perfect but working – helped heal her extremely negative view of matrimony.

I am always amazed at the comments people make about my life, telling me they’ve noticed I don’t swear, that I am a Christian even when I’ve said nothing. On one occasion, when I was just standing admiring the bowls green before a game I was asked if I was praying for the match. I wasn’t but I offered to do so if they would like!

We also though need to inspire one another in our Christian walk. I love being around people who have a different or deeper faith to mine but I believe we all have a role to play in inspiring one another. In 1 Thessalonians 5: 11 Paul wrote Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. This was written in the context of Christians awaiting Jesus’ second coming but it’s appropriate in any circumstance.

Encouragement and inspiration may be overt but also unintentional by a positive lifestyle full of love for the Lord, a passion for his name and a consistency in the good and not so good times. God didn’t save us to be grumblers and complainers but to be light to the world, to see things from God’s perspective and to show this to our world.