<\/p>\n
After a whole weekend in Chattanooga, TN, at a Christian Communicator\u2019s Conference, my heart was full, but my mind was tired. Waking early and getting my husband ready on time, I thought it was a miracle. Not only did we leave early, but we were ahead of schedule. At this rate, we would make it back before sunset and have a full day to unwind before the work week began.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the road stretched before us, we listened to Church, talked about the week, and gloated about \u201cleaving on time.\u201d This wasn\u2019t unusual\u00a0for me, but for my husband, who has OCD, it was a huge victory. We were both exhausted, but the good kind of exhaustion that comes from something meaningful. An overflowing spirit, clearer direction, and dreams in full steam\u00a0ahead. Until 4 hours into our drive, we got a strange message from our Airbnb host that no one ever wants to read:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDid you leave a suitcase by chance?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When I clicked the photo, I was horrified to see our new $200 suitcase sitting in the middle of the road. Horrified, I looked at my husband and shook my head. There was no way this was\u00a0<\/span>our\u00a0<\/span><\/em>suitcase. My husband loaded it into the trunk, right? Wrong. We hadn\u2019t known it, but somehow, our suitcase was still sitting outside our car. And, with all the organization and confidence, as we left, we left our now valuable and lonely bag behind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After pondering the situation, we bit the bullet and asked the Airbnb host to ship our suitcase back graciously. We would pay the costs, of course, but that would save us another trek back across states. The irony of this situation is that we often don\u2019t lose things when life is chaotic; we lose them when we think everything is handled. Sometimes, you don\u2019t notice what\u2019s missing until you\u2019re already committed to the long way home and still have thousands of miles to go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Arriving home four hours past our arrival time, my husband and I were happy to be on solid ground. Yes, we were missing our suitcase, but this got me thinking: What does God teach us when the thing we forget becomes the thing we can\u2019t stop thinking about? What happens when we believe\u00a0<\/span><\/em>we have all of our ducks in a row, but are missing the ducks altogether?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Mistakes happen. Luggage gets left behind all the time. But I believe this little illustration can teach us three things, especially when we don\u2019t realize what\u2019s missing until we\u2019re too far in to turn around.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1. We Often Confuse Peace with Control<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The morning my husband and I left Chattanooga, I felt calm. We\u2019d packed the night before, gotten to bed on time, and meal-prepped breakfast and lunch. The funny thing about control is that we often confuse it with peace. We think that if we know all, all will go well for us. But that\u2019s not what Scripture says. Proverbs 16:9 even insists that while it\u2019s good and healthy to work hard and plan, \u201cIn their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps\u201d (NIV).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Christians, we often misdefine\u00a0genuine trust with false security. When we realized our suitcase\u00a0was missing, all the peace we felt earlier vanished in an instant. Our car did a 360 as we paused to decide whether it was cheaper to pay to ship the luggage or drive back 4 hours, then turn around and drive 8 more. We chose to pay for the shipping, but my point is this: Sometimes, as soon as we arrive at what we think is sacred and peaceful ground (in this case, believing everything was handled because we checked all the boxes), we forget that we\u2019re not the ones in control.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a temptation to believe that everything is good because we\u2019ve done XYZ. We quickly forget that tomorrow isn\u2019t promised and mistake preparation for protection. But peace doesn\u2019t come from everything going right. True and everlasting peace comes from knowing that God alone remains steady\u00a0<\/span>even\u00a0<\/span><\/em>when things go wrong (and trust me, they will). I left Chattanooga feeling confident in my systems, my organization, my plans, not realizing how quickly confidence can replace trust.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. God Doesn\u2019t Always Prevent the Loss, But He Meets Us In It<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Upon realizing that the suitcase wasn\u2019t with us, my husband and I started making arrangements for the next week. We stopped at Walmart to get the essentials, then finished our drive home. But truth be told, we had some disappointment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I knew the suitcase would be okay. Deep down, I prayed it would arrive for us in the next couple of days. But that trust was a little scary. This wasn\u2019t just any suitcase, but one that contained really special clothes and shoes for me. I was also worried about money. The inconvenience for the Airbnb host and us. The embarrassment and apologies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And yet, I was comforted by progress: How I didn\u2019t panic the way I usually would, how I would\u00a0<\/span>before\u00a0<\/span><\/em>I was on anxiety and depression medication. How our marriage didn\u2019t fracture under stress, but instead, we laughed about the moment. How God felt close, even in the mess, reassuring us,\u00a0<\/span>everything would be okay\u2014down to our precious cargo (literally).\u00a0<\/span><\/em>And that, my friends, is the beautiful grace of God who cares about us and all the baggage we carry (or accidentally leave and forget outside the car).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t always stop us from making mistakes. Remember, that\u2019s often how we learn best. But He did soften my response to it, and that\u2019s immense progress credited to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes refinement isn\u2019t God fixing the situation; it\u2019s God changing how we hold it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3. What\u2019s Missing Can Clarify What Actually Matters<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m still a bit embarrassed to tell you this, but our suitcase had some expensive goods floating around inside it. It wasn\u2019t just clothes, but shoes, jewelry, valuables, and special mementos. But you know what wasn\u2019t in the suitcase? Each other. God. Our calling. Our peace. Because there\u2019s a vast difference between clothes and your calling or material possessions and your peace, one is eternal. The other is worldly, and that will make all the difference depending on which you pursue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Life continued as usual without my luggage. Just fine, to be exact. And while I missed some of those items, I knew they\u2019d soon return. But the best news was that now, even here, suitcase missing, I didn\u2019t come home missing what mattered most. That still existed inside me. Between my husband and me. In the love and grace of our home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Because perhaps sometimes, God allows small losses to reveal our deeper security. To demonstrate what holds strongholds in our hearts and needs to go. To remove distractions. To focus our attention. This surely got mine. For what we carry internally matters more than what we pack externally. It always will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever lost luggage like this or not realized something important to you is gone until it\u2019s too late, but I want you to know 2 things:<\/span><\/p>\n 1. If you\u2019re still living and breathing, right here, right now, you\u2019re not too late. You can prioritize what truly matters, shift your heart, and trust God\u2019s peace over your own control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. If you\u2019re inviting God into these places, wait with expectancy. Our God is loving, and though He doesn\u2019t always prevent our mistakes or losses, He helps guide us through them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While I came home lighter than I left\u2014physically and mentally, it\u2019s not because I lost something, but because I learned something. And what matters now isn\u2019t the suitcase I left in Tennessee, but what God taught me in the process. It\u2019s not about who I was then, but who I am now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What might God be teaching you through the thing you didn\u2019t plan to lose?<\/span><\/p>\n If you find yourself coming home without a suitcase, don\u2019t fret. You might gain a deeper awareness of where your trust really rests.<\/span><\/p>\n Photo Credit: \u00a9Getty Images\/ Justin Paget<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Amber Ginter<\/strong> is a teacher-turned-author who loves Jesus, her husband Ben, and granola. Growing up Amber looked for faith and mental health resources and found none. Today, she offers hope for young Christians struggling with mental illness that goes beyond simply reading your Bible and praying more. Because you can love Jesus and still suffer from anxiety. You can download her top faith and mental health resources for\u00a0free to help navigate books, podcasts, videos, and influencers from a faith lens perspective. Visit her website at\u00a0amberginter.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a whole weekend in Chattanooga, TN, at a Christian Communicator\u2019s Conference, my heart was full, but my mind was tired. Waking early and getting my husband ready on time, I thought it was a miracle. Not only did we leave early, but we were ahead of schedule. At this rate, we would make it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[384,1382,3829,642],"class_list":{"0":"post-18360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-dont","9":"tag-missing","10":"tag-notice","11":"tag-whats"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Finding Sacred Ground<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
We\u2019re Not Too Late<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n