You're Full of It!

“You’re not good enough.  You’re not pretty enough, smart enough, thin enough, funny enough, religious enough, mature enough, rich enough, or devoted enough.”

Those statements ring with familiarity was we hear the world say over and over again, “You’re not ___________ enough.”

When we hear that what do we do?  If something is not enough that must mean it’s empty, missing something, or incomplete, right?

Some of us hear that we are not enough and we give up trying to be.  We run down dark roads trying desperately to fill our “not enough” with something else.  We are aware of the big gaping hole inside of us so we start throwing things into it to try and fill it up, drugs, alcohol, sex, false freedom, destructive relationships, anything to make us feel a moment of wholeness.

There are others who walk a different path, trying to be enough.  They become obsessed with keeping the rules, staying within the lines, exceeding expectations, and making sure everyone else does too. They try to fill their “not enough” with things like busyness, projects, dedication to service, and constant devotion to climbing the ladder of success.  They live for the next, “Great Job!” or “Atta Boy!”  to fill them with a moment of being enough… until their next failure.

We both try to fill our emptiness with more emptiness.

Separate roads leading to the same destination of exhaustion, unfulfillment, lack of peace, fear, and still being just not enough.

There is a song by Shane Bernard in which he sings the lyric “Your fullness is mine.”  Fullness.  God’s fullness. 

What is God full of?

So often we think of God as loving people, creating beauty, giving forgiveness, doing good things, speaking truth, showing favor, and even doing perfect things.  We see those as things he does.

Those are not things He does; those are things that He IS.

God is love.  He is beauty.  He is forgiveness, good, truth, favor, and perfection.  Those are what he is FULL of.  Then, He sent his Son, who He “was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in,” to die in our place so that we could become one with him.

So that we could be enough.

See, because now, we are full.  In a world where all other paths lead to emptiness He offered us fullness.  HIS fullness.  He didn’t just give us the ability to do good things; He made us, me and you, BE love, forgiveness, beauty, truth, favor, and perfection. 

Sometimes we will hear the world shout at us that we are still not enough and we forget how full we are.  Then we reach out to fill our perceived emptiness with more emptiness and we wonder why God took away our fullness… but he never did.  We will always be full, we will always be enough, even when we forget how full we are. 

You know what’s really awesome about being full?  All those things that we thought He did but really are just who He is; all those things, aren’t what we do either, they are who we ARE.  We don’t have to worry about doing anymore, we just have to BE.  Live in fullness, my friends, and just be.