Being enough

I fell into the pit of despair last week.

It's hard not to. For one thing, the weather around here has me seriously contemplating my boat-building skills.

If I wanted to experience rain like Vancouver, well, I'd live in Vancouver.

My kids are so disappointed each morning when they wake up and it's raining again. And no matter how times I tell them it's not my department, they continue to file their weather complaints with me.

Add in normal stress and strain of life and it's easy to see why I found myself at the bottom of despair. Sadly, I didn't have the energy to drag my sorry butt out of it, so I chose to remain there for a while.

Slowly, I feel like I am returning to myself. My optimism even made a cameo appearance this morning.

When you look around our society, it's so easy to feel bad about ourselves. Through music, ads, television, movies, news... our society constantly reminds us that we aren't good enough. We aren't young enough, smart enough, funny enough, savvy enough, pretty enough or thin enough.

Further, we don't have enough of this or enough of that. Our house isn't big enough, or our car isn't cool enough. And on and on...

It's hard to just be thankful and content. We have to tune out so much (not to mention act against the inner man Paul talks about in Romans) in order to find joy and contentment in our present circumstances. Most days it's a struggle.

But isn't it encouraging to know that God thinks we're enough. He loved us enough. In fact, He loved us enough to send His only Son to die a tormented death that we could truly live.

That's enough to give me goosebumps. That the God of the universe, who spoke everything into existence takes a remote interest in me, blows me completely away.

Focusing on that may be the key to finding a small slice of contentment this side of heaven.