Good Enough

I recently saw this quote by a band I am a fan of, Rend Collective:

“…Maybe you’re wrestling with the phrase ‘good enough’— we all do sometimes. The thing is, we don’t claim our victories for ourselves and toss our failure into the arms of Jesus. He claims them all. He claims us entirely. Which means we’re no longer slaves to our failure or our successes. There’s no longer ‘good enough’, there’s just ‘His’.”

To be totally honest, perfection is something of an idol in my life. Too many moments I find myself striving to be ‘good enough’ instead of truly relying on Jesus to be my enough. I know that God has already defined and redeemed and made me righteous in and through Jesus, yet I still find myself scrambling, trying to be in control of everything and climb the never-ending, totally unforgiving ladder of perfectionism.

In these moments, I am missing out on living life to the full, the life that Jesus said he came to give me (John 10:10). Instead of trusting in the Lord with all my heart and not leaning on myself (Prov 3:5), I am trying to jump through the endless hoops that the world and I lay out, hoping that just one more hoop will bring the promised satisfaction. I find myself trying to prove myself perfect in my own eyes, instead of seeing myself through the eyes of Him who loves and redeems me (Song of Songs 4:7).

God calls us to be like Him. If He is calling us to this, that means we're not there yet. To be like Christ doesn’t mean we have to be perfect. Rather, we are trying to be like Him because we aren’t perfect and He is. We can never be ‘enough’ but, as Christians, we are His and He is more than enough. This is the truth I have to remind myself of daily; this is what we must rest in.

I don't like for people to see me in my less than perfection. I don’t want people to see me struggling, see me with a bad attitude, see my falling short in any way. My pride wants to appear perfect. But pretending to be perfect helps no one. It sets up unfair standards for others who look up to me and it takes away from my testimony. I mean, it was through Jesus’ scars that good ole doubting Thomas believed. Through the sharing of our stories, struggles, messiness, and all round imperfection, maybe— just maybe— we’ll put a little courage and hope in those around us.

Struggles, the big, the small and the ugly, are what make us human. Friends, family, colleagues and even those we randomly interact with in the shops, in airports, etc— we all crave transparency. As humans we desire honesty. And sometimes, all it takes is admitting, “I am not perfect, but God is.” May that be enough.