Good Enough Pt. 2

Well, I’m a man of my word and I am posting a blog fairly quickly as I said I would. For those of you reading, hopefully you read the last blog, if not, I’d read that one before proceeding with this one. For as much as I jump around and potentially confuse you, if you don’t read the last one you may desire to check me into a home.

Last blog we walked through the idea of “good enough” and measuring up to standards set by our culture. We’ll pick it up from where I left off; We’re told that we are good enough yet we don’t believe it by the actions that result from our inability to measure up. So what do we do?

A couple options come to mind:
A. We try harder
B. We try something different
C. We stop trying

And I believe the answer is, all of them, A B and C. We have to do these things, together, in reverse order. Now I’m getting crazy I know. Stick with me I promise that will make sense.

We stop trying
We must cease to match up, measuring ourselves against those around us. There will always be someone or something that we believe is better in some way. Everyone experiences that and if they don’t they are too arrogant and it’s coming I promise (that was harsh I know, oh well). We must put down the magazines that cause us to despise ourselves, turn off the shows that tell us we are unimportant, and stop giving into the marketing that we must have something in order to be happy. Until we stop we will only continue the empty pursuit to be filled by materialism

We try something different
Read some stories throughout the Bible of God’s people: Moses, David, Job, etc. Even the lower profile characters that names weren’t listed: the prostitute, the man with leprosy, and the woman at the well. These dudes and girl dudes were not perfect, actually they were far from it in many ways, with some major flaws that God didn’t give a dang about because He was going to work through that, because He can do stuff like that, He’s God. Why though, they were far from perfect, severely messed up, doing some sketchy things? Because they knew that Jesus was the only one who mattered, His opinion was that of The Father, and that’s the only opinion they cared to care about. What if we took the words written in ________ literally? Try something different, please someone different, pursue pleasing and being good enough to the One that matters.

We try harder
Ok so we have stopped trying and we are going to try something different, now we have to try harder. We have to try hard, then we have to try harder. Trying hard gets you some satisfaction and you did well, but pushing yourself beyond the limits that you believed you could go is what I mean by trying harder. Want to know something fun, you do, good I’m glad. We will fail no matter how hard we try! What, “Austin this sucks what are you saying?” I’m saying we are human and we are sinners, we will never be “good enough” no matter how hard we try and how desperately we pursue Christ. However, He tells us that “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12).

We wont be “good enough” because we can’t be perfect but we will be good enough because we have pleased Him by our words, through our actions, and in our thoughts.

Francis Chan discusses in Crazy Love the profile of “Obsessed” and what that looks like in terms of being obsessed with Christ. He addressed a similar topic and states that until we stop trying to pay back God we will fail continuing to feel insecure. This hit me because insecurity will come, frustration will come, doubt will happen, but take heart because God looks at you as you pursue Him, truly pursue Him by attempting to please him and no one else, and says that you are good. You are good enough, faithful servant.

I hope you can draw something from this back-to-back blogging. I pray that you will find some encouragement and motivation. We have to decide whose eyes we are attempting to be good enough in….

As always, feedback is encouraged and cared for.

Much Love

Good Enough Pt. 1

Have you ever been told that you couldn’t do something based on abilities you possessed or didn’t possess? If you answered no, we need to meet and become best friends because that would make you an outright stud among studs. It’s happened to all of us, at some point, in some way. Not smart enough, not talented enough, not big enough, not pretty enough, and the list goes on. The central idea amongst all of these is that of not being “good enough”. The best part is that somehow, somewhere, and someway the idea that we decided what was “good enough” and determined who was “good enough”. That’s insane to me! When were we, when was anyone given the authority to decide what “good enough” was in all of the respected areas?

The best part is that we don’t think twice about saying he/she isn’t good enough at this or that. Again, if you’ve heard you weren’t good enough at something or not enough of something, you’ve said it about someone as well. Before you pull the, “no not me, never” card out of your pocket, think hard, I’m sure it has happened recently, maybe you didn’t even say it, you thought it.

Lets clarify before we continue. Not being “good enough” to play professional baseball is not what I am talking about (because that isn’t happening, got it, check). What I mean when I imply by good enough is the devaluing that takes place from the “good enough” standard. It’s the recognition that we have fallen short and not met a mark, and in turn, we are worth less, not as important. WRONG!

We are stuck in a society that treasures measurements and expectations that are skewed by materialism and an false advertising of what reality is. I may break some hearts right now and you may not like the following statement; there is no perfection in this world. No one is perfect and nothing is perfect. No model, athlete, grandparent, boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, job/career, activity, toy, or gadget and that include the iPhone 4 S (I said it). If that didn’t get my point across just ask me to elaborate and I’ll give you a longer list, trust me, I have one (because everything is on it).

Ok, take a deep breathe, the easy part to swallow is over. What, it gets harder to hear what I’m writing about?! Yes, it does. It gets harder because we have forgotten what we were told, by ______, the PERFECT one (one and only form of perfection), ___________. You’re wondering why I say that’s harder to hear, because we’ve misplaced this along the way. We’ve forgotten that the Creator of the Universe looks at us and calls us good, holy, worthy. Self-check: We “know” that, but do we believe it, do we fully believe with all our hearts that it’s true? I don’t think we do, I don’t think we remember this, because when we have a feeling of not being “good/worthy enough” we are showing our disbelief. Maybe we never connected that our actions are showing disbelief. It’s hard for me to write because I’ve been here, I go to this place of believing the outside influences and not the Father who loves me more than I can imagine, no matter how much I want to. Lord forgive me, how selfish and embarrassing and utterly foolish.

I’ll post another blog soon, but before I get long winded and you lose interest I want you to think about this for a bit, let it sit, sleep on it. Maybe we’ll make some strides in the recognition of the self-actualization process we continually face.

I usually state that you can contact me and give me some feedback; questions, comments, concerns. However this is the one time I will encourage you to hold off, wait until you read the next blog.

Much Love

Living Loud

Tonight I was just in a funk, not listening to words people were saying directly to me, seeing their mouth move but not hearing the words. I’m sure it came off as rude, probably arrogant, but that wasn’t it. The probably wasn’t that my mind was blank, it was that my mind was full. My mind was full of faces, personalities, laughs, smiles, and memories. My mind was filled with people whom I know and love and have been around for years, some since birth and some for a very short period of time, even meeting them once or twice. These people that I thought about brought a numbing sense to my entire body, I was frozen sitting in a chair with thirty people. These people I was thinking about, are people that I am afraid for, that I am broken for. I sat there wanting to burst out in tears, wanting to yell at the top of my lungs.

By now you’re thinking I was being a diva, over exaggerating, being dramatic, however you want to paint it. However that’s how I felt, it was incredibly sickening the feelings I had as the people flashed through my mind.

Why? Who were these people, why were their faces, laughs, smiles, and memories making me feel sick and sad to the point of not knowing what to do but yell and cry like a 4 year old in the toy aisle. It was people I know, some intimately and some on an incredibly surface level acquaintance, people that I don’t know where they are going. A mentor, boss, co-worker, discussed tonight the feeling that God’s Kingdom is near, just feeling that it seems like He’s coming soon. It was after being in agreement with him that people entered my mind. People that I am not sure where they will be on that day.

Don’t mishear me and take me to believe I am holier than thou and I have punched a ticket to 100% heaven enrollment because I am so unclean and undeserving it’s not even close. But I am saying it, I’ll say it, I’m fearful for some, I’m scared, but most of all I am heartbroken. The idea of not seeing these people in heaven is what was pushing me to the breaking point sitting in that chair. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it, I’m not trying to drag anyone down whatsoever. I’m just trying to comprehend these feelings I had.

What I have to ask you, is are you one of those people? Not one of those people that entered my head even, are you one of those people that had your mom or dad had the same process happen in their head, would you be one of those faces, smiles, memories of someone that flashed in their head? You enter the blank of who you think it would be, grandparent, youth pastor, boyfriend/girlfriend, brother, anyone. It hurts, and it breaks my heart. There’s a lot in this little bit to unpack and I can’t do it all or you will be reading all night so I’ll wrap it up quickly.

1. I deeply, truly care, about your salvation. I want to see you in heaven for eternity. Don’t pass this off as, “Austin you don’t even know who is reading this that you are saying it to” because it doesn’t matter. My heart breaks at the thought of not seeing everyone I have known and come in contact with in heaven with the Father for eternity.

2. Maybe you’re feeling like me, scared for that, worried at who you may or may not see in heaven. My question to you is this, my question to myself is this: Am I living loud? Are you living loud? Meaning: Can the people you are coming in contact with, the ones filling your mind and thoughts in this sense, can they see Christ in you, in me?

I have some more on this that I will write on soon, it’ll be a blog overload so get over it, sorry I’m not sorry. I love ya’ll too much to keep it all in. Contact me

Much Love