Continued from BLOG: THE CALL (7)
As I describe in the last blog post I dug myself a hole and blindly fell into it. The failed course assignment was a humbling experience; an example of the damaging effects of a singular focus and narrow prism thinking. Nonetheless, God answered my prayer and helped navigate out of the mess.
Recalling God’s faithfulness gave me courage to say yes to write a book. If writing a book was a call from God it seemed reasonable to count on his support. He had helped me in the past; he would do the same for this new challenge.
Prism Light Life Lesson
After that first failed business communications assignment I laboured-on with a changed perspective, one sensitized to the subtle power of words. How easily they can mis-represent. When mis-aligned the intention of a communication delivers an unintended result if not vigilant to the reader and one’s own filters.For me this lesson would become even more poignant as I gathered and wrote people’s stories.
I would stumble again – some stories never made it into the books. Snippets of a life mirrored in words may reveal a startling picture to the one sharing their story. A bird’s eye perspective caught on paper may come as a surprise – it looks different from the picture carried in one’s head and observed through the prism of one’s life. 
Depending on how the light and shadow catch in the prism the view is enhanced or obscured. The shared sentiments reflected in the written word perhaps become more revealing and painful than the storyteller anticipated and their comfort level breached. Single moments don’t reflect a whole life but for some the fear is that is how it might be perceived. Finding balance between strength and vulnerability is a challenge when sharing a life story.
Prism Memory: The Real and the Recalled
We all have our filters through which we absorb the world. We each see the same situation slightly differentially. Foraging into a writers world I discover somewhat fuzzy the distinction between fiction and non-fiction writing. Or more precisely the distinction between fiction and the non-fiction sub-group sometimes called narrative non-fiction, a mode of writing that many find difficult to define as it is a mesh of the real and the recalled – a blend of fact and prism memory.
Fiction is make-believe; non-fiction is about facts and real-life events. But I perceive narrative non-fiction as similar to an impressionist painting versus a photograph. Both may show the same scene but a photograph is a true and factual representation where a painting is not.
When a photographer takes a picture of a house with a beautiful garden it is exactly as you see it – the walkway to the door, the flower beds and bushes that surround the house and border the property, the windows, the door, the roof, etcetera.
http://www.daydaypaint.com/garden-painting-053-p-877
It is the essence of a house and garden the impressionist paints. The paint spread in layered series. Bold and blended colours and truncated strokes create depth and contrast. Seamless swirls and splotches blend and blur creating subtle impressions – not the real scene. The paint fuses into an alluring image so alive that you want to walk up the pathway through the richly coloured garden and enter the house. Same house – same perspective – different rendering. Richer nuanced. I think not so different from the role of a narrative non-fiction writer.
Stepping back from one’s own filters when writing is also a challenge. It has been a fine balance reflecting the lives of people – their strengths and weaknesses – the contrast of light and dark which make them interesting and compelling – and telling their stories in candid yet sensitive ways.
That’s the Thing about God’s Call
And that’s the thing with stories: you can never fully remain an observer or a by-stander. Once someone shares with you a piece of their life – their story – it becomes a part of you, a part of your story; an unexpected melding and unanticipated link forged out of God’s call.
When we are called by God it is generally to change perspective: transform thinking, attitudes, and actions; to die to an old way of life and begin anew – change and transformation, death and resurrection. And when we choose to pay attention it is likely we are called every day, in every minute, through every breath, to allow God to complete his works of love in our lives.
Dare we say yes?
Have you dared to say yes to God?
The next blog post will start a new discussion theme called: The Hope Within.
Only after I said to God I can’t do it – You take my life and do what you want with it did my prayers get answered. So I guess I did say Yes.
Lynn, that sounds like a yes to me. Maybe when we finally let go it frees God’s hand. No longer is he/she bound by what we want which is sometimes short-sighted and limited. God’s Spirit can then move in the best way possible.