You Already Are Enough
Enough. There are many who spend their entire lives trying to chase and achieve that word. Whether it’s to hear it from a person or a company or an audience, “enough” has been one of the greatest lies the enemy has used to distract us from who we truly are.
How often have you heard the story of the executive who climbed the ranks or the athlete who achieved the highest medal, and their conclusion has sounded something like – it just didn’t satisfy me the way I thought it would.
The opposite is also true and more common, these things we chase and give ourselves to end up tell us no. No, you actually aren’t enough. And it crushes us. The very thing and place that you’ve rested your entire identity on, looks you straight in the face and changes its mind about you.
It’s an incredible strategy by the enemy, and one he executes like a well-oiled machine. Somewhere along the way, after all the affirmation and success, baseball became everything I believed about myself. My hopes and dreams, how I saw my future, what I wanted to do in life – it all rested on a game.
My roots sank deep into it. Who people saw me as, or at least the way I perceived they saw me, hinged on my performance. But even deeper than that, it felt as though baseball personified had told me all my life that I was enough – until one day it didn’t.
The very thing I’d given myself to changed its mind. And there was nothing I could do to fix it. It didn’t matter what my dreams were or how I thought things were going to turn out, it was a done deal and the answer was no, I was not enough.
Substitute baseball with whatever you’ve looked to for your worth. It’s happened again in relationships. It happens anywhere where earning and performing are the pillars in which you’re judged. This does not mean that doing these things are bad, it’s when our identity becomes tied to them affirming us that we find ourselves in unsteady waters.
The gospel of grace is the wonderful, good news here. Friend, Jesus saw you and loved you first (1 John 4:19). There was not a single thing you did to earn, deserve, or perform your way into His love. He just loves you. And God came to give us abundant life (John 10:10).
We deserve death because of our sin, but instead of death, God has given us life. This was made possible through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Friend, this world’s promises of “enough” are fickle, short-lived, and willing to change their allegiance quicker than the blink of an eye.
But God’s grace tells us a different story. Even while you were still a sinner, Jesus died for you (Romans 5:8). You did nothing to earn the free gift of His love and by believing in Him there is nothing you can do to lose it. Everything else in this world can change its mind about you. God doesn’t. You are loved by God simply because He loves you. And that is enough.
