I’m not enough. But I know the One who is.

I’m not enough and I never will be.

That’s not very motivational or uplifting, is it? That’s not typically the message we hear these days. That’s certainly not what we want to hear.

We generally hear, albeit with the purest hearts and best of intentions, that we are enough. That we can do it all. The message I hear is, “Press on Christian soldier! You’ve got this!!”

Well, I’m not enough. I can’t do it all and while I might be a Christian soldier, I definitely DON’T have this.

Telling ourselves that we are enough, that we can do it all, that we’ve got this… it’s a setup. A setup for disappointment in ourselves and in our relationship with God. A setup for failure. And possibly a setup for a crash and burn like we’ve never experienced.

For most of my life, I bought into the concept that I was enough; and if I wasn’t, I needed to be. That it was all up to me.  Work harder. Be better. Do more. Then when I didn’t, wasn’t, or when I couldn’t be, I expected those around me, my husband, my friends, and even my kids at times, to fill in my “not enough” gaps.

So often I put my husband in place of God and expected him to make me whole. Expected him to fix my broken pieces. But… He just can’t do that. That is way too much pressure to put on any human.

When we try to make others fill our bottomless empty spaces, we can wear them flat out. Believe me, I know. Which continues the cycle of feeling like a failure because I wasn’t enough for that person. So we pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, try it again on our own, fail, try leaning on someone else to help us be enough and fail… you know the drill.

I’ve written previously about how we are all just walking each other home. So yes, we need each other – like coffee needs cream. But we can’t expect anyone else to fill our need for enoughness.

Only God can do this. Only God will do this.

This gives my heart such freedom and peace. There is freedom for your heart too.

I’m not enough. And you know what? Neither are you. We never will be this side of Heaven. And that is ok. It really is. Because there’s grace.

Are we worth it? Yes! Are we valued? Yes! Are we loved? Yes!! But we are not enough.

If we were enough there would be no need for grace. When I need to believe I am enough or even believe that I am enough, I negate what Jesus did on the cross.

I’m not enough. But I know the One who is! (tweet this)

His grace is enough. Always has been. Always will be.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (The Message)