GOD n You: Closer than CLOSE

It's 1982. I'm a freshman at David W. Carter High School in Dallas, Texas. For two years, I was "Flute,1st Chair" in the junior high school band. Now, I wanted to dance. My Band Brother, Dwight, was not happy. We had spent years refining our sound. I would miss the camaraderie, but things were different now.

I had to dance.

My mother couldn't afford to pay drill team fees, so at fourteen I went to work. School, eat, sleep, work. I did what was necessary to get what I wanted. I did what was necessary to get closer to my dream.

This was also a time for great R&B music. Atlantic Starr was one of my mother's favorite, so they quickly became mine. Every since the Resurrection season a few weeks ago, one of their most compelling lyrics has been ringing in my ear:

Closer than close, well

Closer than most

I just see so much in you

And I want a better view

I want to look deeper into you, yeah

This could have been the anthem for how I sacrificed in order to dance. Dwight didn't understand. My band mates didn't understand. But my mother did. I danced around our apartment all the time. She saw regularly our furniture's location being slightly different from when she left home because I needed the space. Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Parliament Funkadelic, Marvin Gaye, Mahalia Jackson... they all made me want to move.

To this day, music and dance connects with me like nothing else. When I dance, I feel closer to the art and the heart of the music; closer to its creator, closer to how they feel.

I give myself to it, and it gives itself to me.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

Right now. Today. God is asking you to do the same.