Inspiration comes not from waiting but through work

Life Lessons

August 18, 2010

By David Key Lake Oconee Breeze Lake Oconee Breeze Wed Aug 18, 2010, 08:00 AM EDT

LAKE OCONEE — Ernest Newman reminds us that great composers do not set down to work because they are inspired, but become inspired because they are working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day in his or her figures. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.

How about you? Are you waiting for that inspiration from God? Don’t. Get to work. It will come. Wishing you much love and much light.

—The Rev. David W. Key, director of the Baptist Studies Program, is involved in recruitment, admissions, student life, counseling, placement, and development functions for Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He teaches in the Contextual Education program. He is the founding pastor of the Lake Oconee Community Church at Reynolds Plantation. Contact him at (404) 727-6350 or dkey@emory.edu. His

column appears weekly in this space.

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Life Lessons

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Eleanor Roosevelt once said: One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words.

February 2, 2012
God desires for you to use good judgment
Larry Burkett (on his radio program) spoke of a young couple who wanted to buy a home, but felt it to be too expensive for them.

January 26, 2012
What’s your decision-making process?
A husband and wife, prior to marriage, decided that he’d make all the major decisions and she the minor ones.

January 18, 2012
The folly of human nature
Jerry Lambert tells us the story about a school teacher lost her life savings in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler.

January 4, 2012
Happy New Year and prosperity in 2012
Frances Havergal wrote this wonderful poem about the New Year.

December 28, 2011
A Christmas poem to reflect upon the season
G. K. Chesterton wrote the following poem about Christmas:

December 15, 2011
Hoping that you sing with angels at Christmas
Martin Luther, the great Reformer, wrote the following poem about Christmas:

December 7, 2011
Make sure to know or find your purpose in life
Social critic Russell Kirk has defined decadence as the loss of an aim or object in life.

November 30, 2011
Learn to appreciate people, no matter their status
A man was once boasting to an acquaintance, “We have a whole room full of furniture from France that goes back to Louis the 14th.”

November 23, 2011
Mistakes happen so don’t lose sleep over them
A young business owner was opening a new branch office, and a friend decided to send a floral arrangement for the grand opening.

November 17, 2011
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