What is a muse?

A few months ago at a book club the topic of "muse" came up. I admit I didn't really know what a muse was.  Recently I read a book which brought up the topic of a muse.  As I read that I was reminded of a journal which I wrote after the book club about muses.  I searched and found it on the computer and just wanted to share it...

 

What is a muse?  If you are like me you don’t really know what a muse is…I didn’t know until last night at the book club.  The book we were to read was called “The lifes of 9 muses”.  It told the stories of several ladies who have helped men excel in their lives.  For instance one man had a lady who helped him excel in ballet/dance.

I hadn’t read the book.  As others were talking about the book the question came up “do you have someone who has been a muse for you?”  One lady gave her answer and she said that for her a muse is something comes out of her inner being that allows her to write words/sentences when she is writing and she doesn’t know where they come from.  She kept saying that her inner being is the one who gives her creativity.  Another one said that her muse gives her words when she doesn’t know where they came from.  Another lady said something about seeing people who she hasn’t seen in a long time, those things are muses for her. 

With each answer I would think that is what God does for me.    When the lady mentioned that about writing words and you don’t know where they come from. I thought Jesus Christ does that for me.

As I was listening I prayed Lord give me the words for my answer.  Finally my turn came to say what/who is a muse for me?  I said Jesus Christ is my muse.  I said as I’ve been listening to your answers I see how my belief in God and my relationship with God is what gives me the words to say when I don’t know what to say, gives me words to write when I don’t know what to write. 

Before I gave my answer one lady had just commented about whether a muse could be a man.  I was able to say Jesus Christ was a man and he is my muse.

After I told my thoughts one lady commented about how her aunt was in the hospital.  Someone asked the aunt about the pain she was in.  Her aunt said, “My hurting is nothing compared to the suffering of my Lord on the cross”.  She said she thought her aunt’s muse was Jesus Christ.

Later I commented about my sister being her last week and different places we went. I said we went to Antigua on Friday to the Good Friday processionals.  One lady said based on your strong religious beliefs how did you like that or what did you think?  I said from a cultural standpoint, it’s great, seeing the rugs and all.  But from a religious standpoint it’s sad.  I said from what I have observed the Catholics focus more on the sadness and suffering, I said they forget the important part, the resurrection day.  It was interesting because several ladies spoke up and said yes they do and it is even worse here in Guatemala.  One lady said she grew up Catholic but does not like the Catholic Church because it is such a strong focus on the suffering of Jesus.  

The book club group is a diverse group of ladies from Guatemala, USA, England, Brazil, and other places.  I was glad that I had the opportunity to share what I was able to share last night.  I said thank you Lord for giving me the words to share and the opportunity to share.