Enough already! Enough!

I live in a house where many of the shelves go up to the ceiling. The rest of my family is tall and they put things away in places that don’t seem that high to them but they really are. I feel like I’m always reaching. It’s tiring to always be reaching.

I feel like that in life, too.

I remember when my kids were younger and my son asked me what I wanted most for Mother’s Day. I told him I would like anything he made for me but that wasn’t really what I wanted most. The real desire of my heart was to hear that day that I had done and been enough.

Does anyone else ever feel like that?

My family doesn’t put this pressure on me but I put it on myself. There are many days when I don’t feel like I can do enough in all the areas of life that require my attention. Did I teach my children enough? Have I loved my husband enough? Is my house clean enough? Have I worked hard enough at my part-time job? Have I written enough? Have I exercised enough? Eaten enough of the right foods? Been vigilant enough with my teens? Spent enough time with my parents and friends? Reached out enough to neighbors? Am I informed enough? Am I healthy enough? Have I loved enough?

It gets worse on Sundays.

I’ve heard a sermon nearly every Sunday for 48 years. That’s approximately 2496 sermons plus all the ones I heard at convocations in Christian college. You know those stamps they put on your hand or arm at theme parks to allow you to come and go? If my body bore a stamp for every sermon I heard, I would be covered with things like this. Pray more. Read the Bible more. Witness more. Submit more. Worship More. Give more. Reach out more. Reach out further away. Teach your kids. Teach others. Love your husband. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love the person in the next pew. Serve more. Resist Satan more. Be more active at church. Be more active in the community. Be more active in the world. Trust more. Have more faith. Confess more. Forgive more. Be more joyful. Be more repentant. Study more. Share more. See more. Be more.

Enough already!

This idea that I am never enough, that I must constantly do more, give more, be more – this doesn’t come from God. Much of it comes from living in a consumerist society where MORE is the message of the media and the motto of every company. It also comes from within my own sinful, fearful heart that places me at the center of my world and somehow believes that everything and everyone depends on me. It comes from others around me who have, themselves, fallen prey to this haunting drumbeat rhythm of “never enough, do more, do more, never enough, do more, do more.” When we do it to ourselves, we are likely to pass it on like a virus to those around us. And it comes from the evil one who wants to undermine the work of God within us.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (NIV). The Psalmist says, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for He grants sleep to those He loves.” Psalm 127:2 And God saw fit to insist that we labor only six days a week and spend one day “resting from our labors”. I believe it was His way of saying, “Enough. You’ve done enough for one week. You’re only human and it doesn’t all depend on you, it all depends on Me. Spend a day remembering who I am.”

We are to work and to do what the Lord puts before us on a daily basis but I don’t believe He means for us to strive or fret or to labor under the constant accusation that we are never enough. And, weekly, we are to rest from our labors – not just physically, but mentally as well.

Give someone in your life a gift this week and tell them “You have done enough, today.” “You have loved me enough.” “You have been wife/husband/child/friend/mother/father/worker enough for me.”

Give yourself a rest this Sunday and really take a rest. Go to Jesus and say, “Enough. I’m done striving. I’m done beating myself up. You run the world, not me. I choose to rest in you today. Quiet my mind and free me from the pressure of ‘more’.”

When you worship God this week, worship Him with the words “You are enough for me.”

And if you’re tired of always reaching, remember it was God who reached out for us. Jesus is the arm of the Lord who is revealed to us and who knew our reach would be too short so He reached out to bridge the gap. Rest in those arms this week. Rest and know that He is enough.