Abstract Vision(s)

Im SO excited to share this idea I got today from one of my friends. She said to me, “You should write a blog about abstract art!” So here I am!

For the past few days I have been drawing a chalk mural kinda thing for my youth pastor’s office. And after I cleaned the entire board off, I didn’t know where to start. I was almost afraid to start cause I was afraid I wouldn’t like it, and if there is one thing I don’t like, its erasing; backtracking. I eventually got around to starting it this week, and I just finished today. It is very abstract, minimalist in some areas, and very detailed in others, but every single line started and ended somewhere. It seems like a “duh statement” but really think about it. Some of them are short, long, curly, strait, some of them make up very obvious images, some of them create an idea much more subtle. BUT each of them started somewhere, and each of them started by looking like nothing more than a line; nothing more than talc on a chalkboard.

So, why am I saying this? Well, allow me to explain, and please use your abstract mind. (Pun intended)

When we as humans create and plan and “draw lines” in efforts to build what we know as a life – literally and metaphorically. When we “draw” we may be able to predict the outcome of something, and even be confident enough to place a bet on the line we drew. But the truth is the only thing we know is that the lord has future for us and his plans will prevail.

This sounds somewhat ominous, but it is the truth most exposed. When I began to draw with the first piece of tiny broken chalk, I knew exactly what I was doing: drawing a line, but I had no idea what that line was going to be a part of, what spaces it would create or consume in the picture, or even what the picture was going to look like with that line within the next fifteen minutes. But nonetheless, every line gave shape or form to something.

Okay SO MANY LINES I’m getting lost!!!

Here’s what I’m getting at: Weather you are a Christ follower or not, weather you are a world racer or not, you are going somewhere, giving form to the life you are pursuing, weather you realize it or not. What life are we pursuing? Is my life going to be like one of the detailed lines, one of the lines that dances around the board in circles? Is my life being lived as one with intense purpose, or one with complacency? I never knew exactly what the line was going to look like with the other lines in the picture, but I always was confident that the line was going to have a purpose: to draw attention, and make focal point of what was important.

I may not know exactly how my life will fit in with the rest of the world (quite literally), but I am confident that I have a purpose, that what I am doing matters, and it is my biggest prayer that what I am choosing to make light of is pointing and assisting everyone else (every other line) in pointing out what really, truly matters. So what matters? Or let me ask “who” rather…

Jesus, and his life matters. Our willingness to submit so that we can be part of the picture he is creating. That matters. His design, although we might not always get it…

He is everything and He matters.

What lines are you drawing?