Is the problem, the problem? Hi y’all Dan here! Thanks for joining me. I was thinking this week about how to improve my next video on my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/wanderingmonkpaths). I want to improve each video, so you enjoy it more than the last one. I’m striving to learn. I took a course on telling stories through video. Now I’m enrolled in another course about how to write “Creative Non-Fiction.” Both of those courses offer a similar outline for good storytelling. First, set the stage. Then describe the challenge or the problem. Next, talk about the roadblocks and complication. Share what happened and conclude with the final consequences. So, do you see the general theme of “good storytelling”? The focus is on talking about problems!
So, I began watching television, movies, and reading books through the course instructors’ lenses. Sure enough, the plots set the stage, highlight challenges and problems, introduce roadblocks, and conclude with the consequences. The only difference is that some consequences are positive (the happy endings) and some end badly. Why are we so obsessed with problems? Job described us as “born of few days and full of trouble.”[1] He had lost everything and was miserable. In the end, he got a new family and new riches. Still, it’s easy to forget that he had lost his first family that he loved. Is it true that we are “born of few days and full of trouble”?
Solomon wrote that he hated life because of he hated his work.[2] He also wrote that, “a miserable heart means a miserable life; a cheerful hear fills the day with song.”[3] So maybe the general outline of storytelling isn’t the problem. Perhaps it’s our perspective. I can try to tell stories by setting the stage and highlighting challenges. But maybe the challenges can be seen as friends. After all, we are challenged in the gym or on the trail. Climbing up mountain passes or descending rocky declines are hard. But why do we enjoy them, even love them? It starts with perspective.
When I began to embrace the trail and learn her lessons, my perspective shifted from dread to joyful anticipation. The challenge was still there, but I stopped seeing problems and began to grow. Everything changed, my body became stronger, my mind became sharper to interpret the signs of the trail, and my spirit became more peaceful. I became a better person with a new perspective. The problem was no longer my focus, but my passage to something better. Let’s look for new ways to look at new challenges.
Let’s go walking – together.
[1] Job 14:1.
[2] Ecclesiastes 2:17.
[3] Proverbs 15:15.