Happiness is often a result of what happens to me.If I want to be happy, I just need good stuff to happen to me, right?
Joy is not about what happens to me. Joy is rooted in what Jesus has done for me. Joy is God’s work in my heart, not what life throws at me. Joy is in the perspective that rises way above my circumstances.
There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy. He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them. -C.S. Lewis
That reminds me of what I have learned about writing- the recommendation is to not overuse the passive voice. My blog software actually rates my blog as “poor” if it finds too many sentences written in the passive voice. Oh, leave me alone will you? I was having a good day until WordPress considered my writing to be poor. Why does that always happen to me?
Because a good story is never just telling what happens to someone. Strong writing is what someone is doing. Throw in a protagonist, tell how they respond to what happens, and things start getting interesting.My husband has had way too much stuff happen to him. He has an incredible life story, and not because of all the awful things that happened to him. Those parts are just a hopeless tragedy that no one really wants to hear about. But his becomes a great story when you see what God has done in his life and heart. When he tells about the choices he made in the midst of tragedy. When he switches from passive voice to active voice, victim to victor.
I want to learn to write and live in the active voice. Look for the joy that Jesus give rather than happiness in my circumstances. When life happens, to look first at what God is doing and the story He is writing in me!
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