One of the hardest things to draw seems to be simple.  Straight lines.  While the skill seems so basic, this is the place to start when one wants to become an artist.  Particularly challenging for children, partly due to the monotony, practicing drawing straight lines over and over is the way to see drastic artistic improvement.

I somehow thought my life was going to be like a straight line.  Go from Point A to Point B without any detours.  Like the roads that used to make up a farm section  – if you drove from corner to corner to corner to corner, you were certain you had traveled one square mile.  Easy to calculate, easy to follow. No circular boulevards or cul-de-sacs or roads that dead end to cause confusion. No complicated turn-pikes with exits that all could take you were you want to go if you only knew which way for certain.

Due to many factors, my life seems to become increasingly more complicated.  Some of these paths were ones that I started down, but some were chosen for me.  Sketching a straight line seems more challenging than ever.  When I stop and ponder what I want from life, I know what centers me. Jesus.  As ultimately that is One Person that I always want more of.  But how can I make that happen?

A few anniversaries ago, my husband and I drove down to Kansas City.  More than just a celebratory week-end, we were trying to pray about a new direction.  Wondering what God had in store for us.  Stopping in a bookstore, we noticed the album “Closer” by Shawn McDonald was on sale.  For the rest of our time down there, we listened over and over.  Driving around with our 1996 Honda station wagon sunroof open, because we’re stylin’ that way, we cranked the radio and sang along.  One song in particular still stands out to us – the title track.

Looking for a color in a shade of gray
Looking for a love in a drop of rain
Trying to find change in the old mundane
Everything I do just feels the same
Spending my life out in the desert
Been gone so long feels like forever

(Chorus)
I just want to be even closer to you
I just want to be even closer, I am yours
You can have all of me, anything, everything
I just want to be even closer

A day without you is a thousand years
A day without you is a million tears
Tell me why do I run when I am in fear
Why do I run when you are so near
Spending my life out in the weather
Been gone so long and I need some shelter

Where ever you go
Where ever you are
I just want to be there with you
I just want to be closer to you
I just want to be closer, I am yours
You can have all of me, anything, everything
I just want to be even closer

That is my destination.  Jesus.  Yet in the midst of all of life’s demands I can forget.  I want to ponder more on Him and what He is doing.  I want to be looking more for Him and seeing what He is doing in my life.  Because, without a doubt, He is at work!

Recently I was honored to become a part of a group of mom bloggers on a new site: the Good Life Moms.  Writing bi-monthly for them, my hope is to alternate with this blog.  While I love sharing our life as we travel around on my Odyssey Through Nebraska site, here is where I truly reflect on what really matters  – what God is doing.  Introspection that I need to practice more often.  Ultimately I want my line to keep inching closer – straight to His heart.

P.S.  Want to listen to the outstanding Shawn McDonald song?  I know that I could not find the link without listening again! 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4PiNTeEkwo]