IRL

source: d sharon pruitt

Real.

Life.

What is that?

I have a real life with my daughter, son and husband. The real life that sees me with crazy hair in the morning and heavy aggravated sighs when I’m upset.

I also have a real life that laughs and cries with my sisterchicks.

I have a real life on my blog–the anonymity allows me to be a little more real than normal.

My twitter stream even shows my real life.

Do all those together show the real me?

Or is there another one? A more real Amanda hidden somewhere else?

It’s the one that is unseen by even me. The one I keep searching for. The one I really really really think I am but just can’t seem to live out day by day. The real Amanda that God designed. The one that I strive to become. The one that I hope is slowly emerging day by day.

There are some verses in the Bible that talk about being found and hidden in Christ. I’ve always loved the paradoxes of the Bible (be last to be first, give to receive, die to live, etc.). So, to find this hidden-Amanda, this REAL LIFE Amanda, I have to find my real life in Him. Hide myself in His Word, His arms, His eyes, His heart and His laws. This is where the real Amanda is.

For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 NLT

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Philippians 3:8-9 NIV