When I first started writing, I didn’t realize how many kinds of “third person” perspectives there were. I thought “the third person” stood alone, self-contained. Since, I have come to understand there are a number of third persons: limited, limited multiple, omniscient, and the factors of present or past tense applied to these variations.
I will shockingly admit I had too many viewpoints per scene as a beginner storyteller. Even more taboo, I peppered my tale with a few snippets of omniscient POV, which didn’t surprise me as I am a reader of old fiction—notorious for such origins. I’m told omniscient is frowned upon now, because it tells rather than shows the story. I would like to write a book from the omniscient viewpoint just to go against the grain, and because I do happen to like it. Maybe someday, I will risk the venture.
This morning however, I’m thinking about “the third person” and reflecting on a faith message I listened to recently. The pastor taught about The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the trinity, and it hit me—The Holy Spirit is like the original “third person.” He has no boundaries, can see all, hear all, know all, be in all, and everywhere at once as if the author telling a tale. It comforts me to think of Him this way.
Maybe because of my introverted nature and now as my disease, MS, keeps me from social functions and family time on occasion, I find myself alone quite a bit. I think better alone and create better in quiet, but sometimes I tire of solitude. At these times I need to remember: He’s with me.
I’ve been a person of faith for many years. At seven years of age I made a decision to believe Jesus came to be Emmanuel God with me in The Person of The Holy Spirit to reconnect my hand to God’s. I remember it as the quickest and easiest decision of my life, but one that changed everything, mostly me.
I page back through my numerous journals, and the pages are lined with God’s presence, The Holy Spirit, with me through life’s thick and thin moments, through the sorrow and the joy, through the laughter and the tears. I find this is what I write about, at the core. No matter what story I am currently crafting, the idea of God’s Spirit being present with me through life radiates at the center, like a mass of solid metal constantly turning contrary to the rest of the layers of me, rather like the earth. Without Him at my center, I would no doubt stand still, and one side of me would be scorched with human passion, while the other froze with a heart untouched by love.
This is what I’ve experienced for over forty years—his constant stabilizing grace. I am, because He is. I’m not sure what your journey looks like or what you’ve chosen to believe or not believe. It’s not my job to argue with you or change your mind, it’s my job to share my story. That is all.
Blessings.