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