YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH

You are not enough.

…and you never will be.

…and that’s ok. 

The sooner you give into that reality, the sooner you can actually live, and live abundantly.  This ridiculous idea that you are enough, and the endless memes trying to convince us of it, is partially what is driving a culture of anxiety and depression at alarming rates.

When we say “I am enough” we are often grappling with all of the flaws, inadequacies and shortcomings that can feel so vulnerable.  They are our liabilities, and as human beings we generally don’t like that fact that we have those liabilities.  So, rather than accept them and look for solutions, we cover them up.  We down-play them.  We pretend they don’t exist.  We allow shame to flood in and inform our behavior. 

“I am enough” can be the verbal equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and yelling “la la la la la… everything is fine!” while the house is on fire.  And, no matter how many daily affirmations you say to yourself in the mirror, those liabilities aren’t going away.  In that striving to convince ourselves and others that we are self-sufficient, we drive ourselves into physical and emotional sickness.   

In this conversation, as in so many today, we have to define terms. 
What does “enough” even mean?

Enough for the standard you’ve imposed on yourself?

Enough for the labels you’ve taken on?

Enough for the culture you’ve conformed to?

Enough for the marketplace?

Enough for survival?

Who’s “enough” are you “enough” for?

And if you actually were enough, where does that leave others in your life?  What if declaring that you are enough was a signal to people that you are not in need of them?  After all, you got this, right?  I know we tell this phrase to people in a desire to encourage them, but what if it was having the opposite effect?  This simple phrase might be not only communicating that we do not need them, but that they shouldn’t need anyone else as well.  That they need to get up to this same standard of “enough” as you.  So, then we are all left without the support of our community, frantically declaring we are enough even harder. 

If we keep repeating it, maybe it will become true.    

One of the things that I so love about following Jesus is that He gives us the space to passionately and honestly declare that I AM NOT ENOUGH and feel zero shame, stigma or humiliation.  In fact, it is in that self-identified weakness that his strength covers every liability.  Ironically, it is in the declaration that I am not enough that gives Him space to fill in the gaps and turns liabilities into assets. 

The number one way that He covers those liabilities?  Others. 

He puts us together like puzzle pieces in community where my strengths cover your weaknesses, and vice versa.  See, I will never be enough.  However, we, knit together by the hands of an artist God, will always be enough.

So, this is an invitation to stop proving your enoughness.  To embrace the fact that you aren’t, without the self-condemnation.  To be free from it all, and be human for a change.

Perhaps you will meet a Savior who has something bigger to say about you than that silly self-affirmation meme you read on Instagram.