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What is it like to be a Christian? I'll try and explain from my limited perspective.

Being a Christian can be equated to two lovers getting married and then beginning the real task of living together. There is the euphoria where love is fully found for the first time and a man and a woman have now entered into a new life together. It could modestly be equated to fully witnessing your first spring or catching your first taste of the cold morning dew. We as the Bride have exchanged our vows and promised to be faithful to One Husband. Though, while we conceptually may have understood, we did not realize then how strenuous the process of dying to oneself would really be. We now begin the process of riding ourselves of all selfishness (all the while failing miserably) and seeking forgiveness for our wrongdoings, daily. Like the perfect Husband He graciously forgives us and continues to lead us with life-giving leadership but we struggle with accepting that He still perfectly loves us in spite of ourselves. Daily, He affirms us by noting how wonderfully made we are and He makes us his number one priority. Yet, we run. We break our promise. We act out in our flesh, we run after other desires, we commit adultery with things that have no power to satisfy but we do it over and over again, unsatisfied, we go back. All the while the Husband sees us for who we really are. Though we are a wretched-cheating mess He beacons us home and calls us blessed, He calls us redeemed. There at His feet we repent and He picks us up, dust us off and says, "you are forgiven." For the Husband knew whom He had married and He knew His Bride would be a mess before we said, "Yes" to His call. As the years go by, the Bride learns to that to die to herself means to become more like Him. Though the battle will be strenuous and perhaps even daunting at times we move forward because of how unwavering His love is for us despite our imperfections. It is His love that drives us, it is His love that carries us, and it is His love that gives us new life. As time passes by we learn how to better love Him and be obedient as His wife but ultimately we model His love and life-giving sacrifice.

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