I can’t tell you how blessed I am to know Judy Hougen.

I had coffee on Friday night with my former writing instructor, who is so full of wisdom that she can’t help but share life-giving insight.  We were discussing my recent blog post in which I fretted over mediocrity.

“I don’t think in terms of success and failure anymore,” she told me.  “I’ve trained myself out of thinking that way.  It’s better to think in terms of faithfulness and unfaithfulness.  You are being faithful with the gifts that God has given you, and that is not a mediocre thing.”

Judy reminded me that that success/failure framework is all about us, but faithfulness/unfaithfulness frames things in our relationship to God, and those are the questions believers need to be asking.

I felt a little like a kaleidoscope that had just been given a good shake: a new way to look at things.

I’d been so zoomed in on my own life, the camera screen was full of me.  But talking with her reminded me to take a step back, to zoom out, to remind me that I am a servant of God, that I am tethered to the King, that my actions gain meaning when seen in relation to him.

And anytime I include Jesus Christ in the picture, the pressure on me relaxes.