IN CHRIST–it is the only way to live the adventure! I am powerfully convicted of the importance of the word “IN.” Living FOR Christ too often leads to well-intentioned, ceaseless activity that distracts us from living IN Christ. Living WITH Christ makes Him a layer in our life rather than Him being our life. Living OUT Christ can mean that we focus on bold external works but neglect the inner work of cultivating life IN Christ. But living IN Christ means our pursuit of Him is the root, the axis of our relationship with Him. Our obedience, faithfulness, witness, ministry, hope, joy, and love are the outflow of life lived IN Christ!

Writing has been a significant part of my life IN Christ, sharing my heart with the Lover of my soul and listening as He shares His heart with me. This blog is born of those times of intimate communion and reflection. I want to share what living the adventure IN Christ is like for me and how He is changing me by His transforming Spirit. And I want to do it real, without the facades that we Christ-followers so naturally and readily erect. Some of those facades are so finely tuned, we’ve forgotten that they aren’t real. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to know and be known without our spiritual image in place.

Jesus redeemed me over 30 years ago. Great joy and great pain have washed over me since that time, but His sovereign Hand has orchestrated it all. By His sacrifice, I am “graced” to be His child, and I am thankful for His gentle ways with me, his bumbling, stumbling daughter. I am blessed to be a wife to my wonderful, godly, Energizer-bunny husband David and mom to my sweet daughters Grace and Eve.

The wonderfully majestic Cirque of the Towers

And in case you’re wondering about the photo, I’m celebrating experiencing one of God’s glorious gems–Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range of Wyoming.

It was a long, hard hike with a lot of ups and downs, but the end was worth it all. The experience is a fitting metaphor for what it means to live IN Christ. Living IN Christ is not a way of ease. It is a way of suffering and discipline, but He is at the end. And He is worth it all!