Rediscovering My Bulls-Eye

Sigh... another week gone by and tomorrow is yet another Monday morning. (Well... right now... this post will go up Monday morning. I'm writing Sunday night.) The first big youth event of the school year is done, I have completed editing the first draft of my novel, I'm debating running to the grocery store to get some fudgebars, a small glass of wine is by my side, and I'm watching Anne of Green Gables the Sequel (thanks to Netflix). Not a bad Sunday night if you ask me.

I think I'm also mostly caught up on watching VEDA (Vlog Every Day August) videos on YouTube. Which is no small feat.



Overall, it was a wonderful week back up in Chicago. All of it was spent with my family and some close friends. Granted, most of it was around food which I ate far too much of. But that's okay. Vacation calories don't count, right? Right.

One day, I had breakfast with a childhood friend and then drove up to another side of the city for coffee with a college friend. Both dates, I was struck with amazement at where we were in life. My childhood friend, thinking of how even though we don't do the best at keeping in touch, after all of these years we can still pick up where we left off. Talking about guy problems, hopes and dreams, trying to figure out life, and thinking about the future. When talking about some of the issues I've been facing, it was good to hear her opinions and encouragement. As well as eat some amazing banana bread french toast.

Then at my coffee date later, I was with a college friend who originally started out as a high school senior in the youth group I did my field work with. She was also one of my freshman campers in my group when I was on the Concordia Weeks of Welcome Staff. We did the same general thing:  caught up on life, shared hopes and dreams, talked about books, and thought about the future. She's getting married in November, and I loved seeing the ring sparkle on her left finger and her face lighting up as she talked about being ready to be married. I remember having a moment thinking of how glad I was we had been able to be friends for so long and how much I loved her opinion. Also thinking about how that 18 year old girl I knew so long ago had become such an amazing woman.

Woman. I know that's what my friends and I are now. But for some reason I still see us as girls or young ladies. Which, I know we are that as well. That whole fun thing of being in our 20s. We're still trying to figure life out, but we really are adults. Grown up jobs, getting married, and having kids and everything. Well... at least some of those things. Marriage and babies aren't in the picture for me anytime soon- thankfully!

When I read other blogs, I see a lot about how hard it is to make friends outside of college. Which is completely true. Making new friends out in the "real world" is rough. But it makes me so much more grateful for the friends I do have though. Through time seeing who has stuck around and where we all are. When I see our lives now, I wouldn't have guessed back in college!

It was good to hang out with those people in my bulls-eye. My "bosom friend"s and "kindred spirits" as Anne Shirley would call them. As time has gone on I've learned better who really is in that bulls-eye. The people I can go to when I need a good opinion on life choices and my thoughts and dreams. People who value my opinion as well.

I finally finished the book Love Does over the week, and Bob Goff said at one point: "When I don't know the answer to where I am or what God wants me to be doing, which is often, I try to get a bearing on at least a couple of fixed points that I can trust. One is Jesus . . . The other fixed point I use is a group of people I feel God has dropped into my life, kind of like a cabinet." (Chapter 23 page 155)

I think that's how God talks to me too. Sometimes you do get that "feeling" or that "voice" which somehow "tells" you what to do or where to go. But more often though, I think God uses just Jesus and the people around you. Those in the bulls-eye. The people who know you best, see different sides of the story, and can give you an opinion you wouldn't be able to have anywhere else.

What or who are your fixed points? When you need an honest opinion and guidance, where do you turn to?