Lent Day 18 - Is That Enough?
At one stage, our daughter worked for a well-known charitable organisation and would at times find herself taking phone calls from people wanting to make a financial donation.
One of the most memorable conversations she had went something like this: ‘Good morning! How can I help you?’ ‘I’d like to donate a thousand dollars to the foundation.’ ‘Did you say one thousand dollars?’ ‘Um . . . is that enough?’
Was this gentleman honestly thinking this might be too small a sum for them to accept? Our daughter suspected he had given more in previous years and felt bad he could no longer do the same – but what a strange question! Alternately, was he perhaps sincerely questioning his own level of generosity and thinking a thousand dollars was in fact a mere pittance, after all?
Sadly, the question he asked is all too familiar to me because, as a perennial people-pleaser, I have often asked it of myself. In all sorts of contexts, even when I have done my best, I can still wonder over and over, ‘Was that enough? Was it what they wanted?’ Whenever a visitor at our dinner table eats everything on their plate, I wonder if I gave them enough. Are they perhaps still hungry? Are they thinking what a mean hostess I am? If this happens at a family gathering, one of our children will usually roll their eyes, jump in and say what they know I am about to say, simply to tease me: ‘Did you have enough, dear? Would you like some more?’
People-pleasers want everyone to think well of them. They cannot bear to let anyone down or upset anyone because it is up to them to keep everyone happy. Yet how exhausting that can become – and how impossible to achieve anyway.
Sometimes, we can have the same attitude towards God too. When I was in my early teens, I thought that, if I went to church on any given Sunday, surely this would put me in God’s good books for that week at least. Surely everything would go well because God would be so pleased with me. Thankfully, a few years later, I came to experience more of the amazing love and grace of God and to realise there is no point in my trying to impress God because I could never be good enough. Instead, Jesus, the perfect, sinless Son of God, has taken care of that for me on the cross and become all the ‘enough’ I need.
God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8, nlt
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8–9, nlt
Taken from God Moments by Jo-Anne Berthelsen
Does your life seem too ordinary to include moments where God breaks in?
God Moments shows why even the most seemingly ordinary life experiences can reveal God’s riches if only we would stop and notice. Based on her personal experiences, Jo-Anne Berthelsen shares how apparently mundane scenes or events in daily life have created unexpected ‘God moments’.
Grounded in Scripture, the 101 uplifting devotions in God Moments encourage us to open our hearts to our extraordinary God and look for him amid our own ordinary routines.
It is not about measuring up. It is not about making sure we have done enough to get into God’s good books. Instead, it is about receiving the amazing grace we have been offered through Jesus Christ, then doing our best to honour him in the way we live each day. May each of us remember this when the pesky question, ‘Is that enough?’ next pops into our minds.