Lessons Learned: Judgements from the World

 

Hello friends! 

If you follow me on instagram, you know I had a beach bach trip last weekend! which was just amazing!

I love the beach and just travel in general. For me, experiencing the beach, the mountains, or flights elevated in the clouds just makes the line between heaven and earth feel so so thin. I just love God’s creation and how beautiful He presents Himself in it. 

It was a trip for my brother’s fiancee’s (future sis in laws <3) bachelorette party! It was such a fun time, and it is so easy to celebrate her! It also was a testament to her beautiful heart to meet all her awesome friends! I am still reliving all the good and funny memories! We love you LeeLee!

Here are just a few pictures from our great time:

So yeah, it was a great time — welp, until the morning that we were leaving. This is when we realized the keys to my rental car went missing.

These were the keys to the car that was going to take us to the airport.

These were the keys that we didn’t realize were missing until right when we needed to be leaving.

Finally, these were the keys to the car blocking the driveway from the other rental car that we had the keys for to get out of the driveway. What a time. 

Needless to say, I felt very defeated, and that it was all my fault.

I appreciate being needed and being able to deliver help in the needed times. I am driven by being able to help. I had the rental to help with driving. I needed to keep up with the keys. 

But alas, I did not. And that was not helpful (an enneagram 2’s nightmare).

So, our crew was almost late to our flight, we had to jump through hoops to get the rental car situation worked out, I almost had to change flights, and it was just a whole mess. It was not the best end to such an amazing trip.

However, this experience taught me a few lessons about myself and my faith, and it was a practical event that challenged my beliefs into actual action. I actually had to trust and lean on the promises and the goodness I know about God.  

Let me elaborate:

When you fail at a responsibility given to you, you not only let yourself down, but others as well. You feel incompetent, and you feel judged as incompetent.

My exact feelings during the above series of events. 

But here is the thing that I had to cling to and still do in the moments as I think back to such a cringe worthy event:

As a follower of Jesus, we are not judged by what we ourselves are able to do. We are not judged by the world, and whether or not we feel competent or look competent.

Rather, we are judged by what the Lord has already done for us – defeating death on the cross. Jesus is competent, therefore so are you and the Lord deems you worthy.

As easy as it is to know and say this, this moment was when I had to examine whether I really believe and live like I believe this?!

I sat there feeling defeated because I lost the keys, we were almost late to the airport, I felt judged, etc. I was looking only at the worldly messages in that moment, which 1. is very easy to do and 2. will only lead to feeling worse. 

I was reminded of the promises of Jesus that He is walking through this with me, He deems that it will be okay because He’s got me, and He deems me competent because He is competent.

I can’t sit and sulk and feel judged, because even so — even if someone is judging you, it is not about you! It is all about Jesus, and because of his competency, you are competent and have all you need.

Sometimes we walk through moments when we feel weak to reiterate just how much we need the strength of Jesus. And to relearn the lessons we’ve always known, but tend to lose sight of in a broken world. This was one of those times. 

It is not about us. It is not about our successes or failures. It is not about whether you can prove competency. It is all about Jesus and His success over death, sin, and evil.

And because of that – because of what Jesus has already done – everything will be okay.

Everything will work out for HIS Glory because He says so.

Thank you Jesus. What a reassurance He brings, and I am thankful for this message in that time. 

And though the trip was SO much fun and I am ready to go back to the beach, another promise that just brings tears to my eyes is that truly the BEST is still yet to come. May we keep our eyes set on the Glory that awaits us in Heaven from our Father that makes everything okay.

Love always and thanks for reading!

Katie Girl