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Lexie has the best smile ever. Hands down. She shines brightly on her campus in Texas, sharing the Love of her life with everyone she meets, and quite possibly mentions her fiancé occasionally as well.

About two and a half years ago, I said yes to a life full of adventure and surrender. I had never understood what it meant to sacrifice, or to truly love another (and how both go hand-in-hand) until I encountered His love.

That is when my adventure began.

Through the gentle hand of our creator, my old self was washed away and a new life began. Just as fishermen became fishers of men, a new mission was formed in my heart. When we say yes to Jesus, we say yes to Him and His mission. To a life of sacrifice, wonder, passion, brokenness, a life that will exceed our wildest desires, a life that Jesus himself lived out before us. Jesus’ love for His bride compelled him to sacrifice all that He is for her. When He was hanging on the cross, broken and beaten, covered in shame, He never once stopped thinking of His bride.

This is the love story that weighs heavily on my heart.

When we come to know Jesus, we walk with Him through this life and take part in this love story. We take communion to remember that day, to reflect and praise Him and to take part in the greatest love story ever written. His blood is enough. His love draws me closer and the fear of my Groom having his heart broken by His bride compels me to go wherever he calls me. Just as the groom longs for His bride, the bride longs for her groom. The bride and groom become one with marriage and begin a new life and a new mission together, one that is different from what they had imagined before their love began.

Being the bride of Christ encompasses all of this. We follow our Groom because of our love for Him, and our mission becomes entangled with His.

Jesus’ last words were given to us in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.” Jesus’ mission is for all to come to know Him, every tribe and tongue, every people group. Our Groom cries out for everyone. In His last words to His bride, He tells us to go, to teach about the greatest love story ever written, and to make disciples who will make more disciples so that His church will grow, so that on the day of the Groom’s return, His Bride will be ready. I imagine as Jesus tells us to go, His voice is full of love and comforting words. I imagine His hand reaching out, ready to walk through this mission with His bride.

We often forget that after He gave us this command, He also gave us the most precious promise: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.

We must hold on to the promise as it is our Groom who has given it to us; there is, however, no “lo”, without first the “go”.

Each day I am reminded of the Great Commission, of what Jesus has in store for the day and where His promise will take me next. Even now, as I write this, I am reminded of the places where Jesus has walked with me: from the dry air of the Sahara Desert, to the mountains in Kyrgyzstan, to the busy streets of Turkey. Each holds a place in my heart and my Groom continues to guide me along on His mission to spread the Good News to all who have ears. He continues to expand my heart so that I may have room for more places and more of His people to be embedded inside of it. Jesus has already taken up the cross, and now we must follow Him.

We must take up our cross and walk. There is no time look behind us because of what He has ahead of us.

The Father is crying out for His children, He is beckoning us to love Him recklessly in the same way that Jesus loves us. We do not know the day or the hour of our Groom’s return so the bride must be ready. We must listen to our hearts and go. Whether it is for a lifetime overseas or for a few weeks, we must go because our love for Jesus compels us to.

Our groom has given us the path we are to follow and He is now crying out for His bride to follow. We just have to listen.

So pray for more of Jesus, because the closer we are to Him, the further He will walk with us hand in hand through this life until we reach eternity with the Father.

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