If you have ever brushed your dog in the summertime, you know that the hair never stops. Brush after brush, the hair keeps coming. From nooks and crannies unknown, the brush fills up one swipe after another. Yes, I know that there are dogs that don't shed. Yes, I am aware that if we didn’t have a dog, then we wouldn’t have the problem of hair on the wood floors, couches, black clothes, etc. But the reality of my back porch during August brushing experiences is a flurry of endless hair. Enough!
It is easy for us to gripe about the areas of our lives where we’ve had enough. We complain when we are tired of taxes and traffic. We fuss about being frustrated by the constant sass and resistance of a coworker or family member. We are weary of, and wonder how we can stop, the relentless gush of anger, fear, hate, jealousy, greed, suffering, struggle, sorrow, isolation, and abuse that floods our lives. We cry, “Take away the junk in our lives, God. We’ve had enough!”
On the other end of the spectrum, there are places where we don’t have enough. On our worst days, all we can see are the deficits, the seemingly empty compartments of desire. I’m not talking about toys, books, clothes, entertainment, sleep, and ice cream, but our yearning for vulnerability and compassion. We can’t ever get enough quality time with loved ones or those with whom we share deep and lasting friendships. And what about knowledge, peace, kindness, confidence, joy, and help? We don’t have enough of these in our lives. But it’s more than just about us.
Our needs extend beyond our personal wishes and into the realm of society’s endless thirst for money, education, housing, food, security, power, influence, and hope. We all want more of this stuff. We all crave more, more, more, thinking if we only have this and if we only have that, then life will be good. All of our problems would be solved. But we don’t have enough, so we spend our days scrambling and grabbing, trying to hoard and stockpile. Enough – this little two-syllable word – consumes too much of our lives. Either we have more than we need or we’re working hard to fill up the empty.
Jesus spent much of his time on earth teaching and reminding people that he was here to fulfill all that was lacking. He was enough and wasn’t afraid to say so.
"My grace is sufficient for you.”
“I came that they may have life,
and may have it abundantly.”
“I did not come to abolish the law,
but to fulfill.”
“How much more will your Father
in heaven give good things
to those who ask him!”
“Are you not of more value than the birds?”
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
“All ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces,
twelve baskets full.”
Jesus is enough. He came to live among humanity to remove the burdens of our shame and greed, meeting us in the middle of our mess, striking a balance between our excess and absence.
Will you let Christ be enough for you?
In expectation and hope,
Pastor Lowell
We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity.
Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency…
Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.Lynee Twist