Not Enough: When You Just Aren't Good At Life
“How is it that everyone else is so much better at life than me?!? I am just not enough!!!”
I was tired, stretched thin, and overwhelmed by life’s waves crashing over me when I so clearly spoke these words aloud to myself this past week. I’m fairly certain I even “rawr”ed at the end. I proceeded to respond to myself the way I would to a friend who could’ve spoken the words. “God is enough. You don’t have to be.”
“What does that even mean?!? And how does that help me right here, right now??” I replied (to myself) in frustration.
It is at that point that I quietly realized that the next time I would pick up that book, that guide, the inspired words of God written for me personally, that it would feel a little heavier. My bible wouldn’t be bouncing back like memory foam into its rightful place where it’s been as often as it was supposed to be, because if it had been where it’s supposed to be I wouldn’t have asked myself that question.
So, in humility and exhaustion I looked for a remedy where I could have found prevention. I braced myself for the “where have you been?” that I deserved, but instead I found the constant, comforting love of a Savior who knew just how often and how much I would fail him and give himself up for me anyway.
John 16:33
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
It is absolutely true that I am not enough. I am a constant failure. But we all are. We all fall short, miss the mark, and lose out in attaining perfection daily. It's been this way since the fall of man, and shouldn't be the shock it sometimes seems to be. Life's chronic blows are intentional.
Romans 8:18-21
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
The worst days in this life are the greatest reminders to fix our gaze heavenward. Days that I am drowning in my inabilities are the most honest of them all, because on no day am I able to attain perfection, to earn my own salvation, or to glorify myself in a way anywhere comparable to the glory that will be revealed in me when I am called to my heavenly home.
Romans 8:28-39
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I dread the day I ever get so "good at life" that I forget how very deeply I need my loving Savior. I don't ever want a (hypothetical, impossible, really just laughable) day in my life where I get so near perfection from a worldly standard that I lose sight of my heavenly goal. Remember where your peace comes from, where your glory will be revealed, where your strength lies, and where your conquering counts.
