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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

POV Wednesdays

POV – point of view – I’ve mentioned it before (here) as being an important component to get right when writing a novel.

But POV affects real life too, every day, as we interact, experience, understand, learn and react. Our point of view determines whether we laugh or cry, influences our decisions, and shapes how we treat other people. We can be right or wrong depending on our perspective. Perspective can veil or misrepresent the truth, or deepen our understanding of it.

POV is an important entity!

Every week about mid-way through, I find that evaluating my POV and making adjustments as necessary helps propel me through the rest of the week.

Another word for it is perspective.

That word seems to come up a lot in every day situations. The famous “is the glass half empty or half full” scenario didn’t become famous for nothing.

But it’s something that, I find, needs tweaked all the time. For the most part, you can’t just set it and forget it. So many variables alter perspective, such as emotions and knowledge and experience, that its delicate journey can be knocked off course with surprising ease.

Thus, POV Wednesdays. (Is the week half gone or half left? Haha.)

Anyway, I thought maybe throwing a perspective question out there once a week might be a healthy exercise.

The idea of this alit one evening as I listened to Joel Osteen, master of perspective IMO, as he challenged his congregation to consider the following statement: God does not do it to you, but for you.

Honestly, I don’t remember what context he used this in or what verse he was referring to as backup, because I was only half listening, while the other half desperately tried to write something in a novel sequel I haven’t had time to work on in forever. BUT that’s beside the point.

Point is, I think we’ve all been at the place in our lives where we’re raging at the sky (as if God is in the sky), shaking our fists and crying, “Why are You doing this to me?!?!!?”

Being the Baptist-trained girl that I am, the verse from Romans that immediately comes to mind is, “For all things work together for the good…” and I end my thought with “blah, blah, blah” because at that precise moment that I’m shaking my fist, I don’t feel like it’s true not to mention I don’t have a full grasp on what that really means.

Unemployment is for my good?

Sickness is for my good?

Betrayal, disappointment and heartbreak are for my good?

Whatever, God. Whatever You say. (Cross my arms, turn my back, pout my lip.)

But when I heard Joel Osteen put it in a simple sentence – God’s not doing this (whatever this is) to you, but for you – it resonates a little more, makes a bigger impact.

Sometimes things we’ve heard for years take on new life when restated and whittled down (or expounded on – which is why I like various translations of the Bible). That’s what happened with me with this particular sentence.

It’s perspective. If I can remember the for instead of the to, then I can be quicker to staunch a flow of pessimism and cling to trusting in our trustworthy God. I might even get to see how that thing that hurts me becomes a blessing.

How do you see it, Dry Ground friends?

Happy POV Wednesday!

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