I was in my car on my way to work, thinking...about life, people, and the lives we as people create for ourselves. As most of my thoughts go one led to another, then another. Eventually it ended up at a place I seem to be stumbling upon more and more: this American culture and the hierarchy within it that we have created.

There are all sorts of hierarchies in our world. They can be found in government and businesses, but there seems to be one, which shapes us more than any other: society. For some reason we have thought it best to label and sort. To assign different places and levels of being to people.

We base our sorting on varying factors: wealth, popularity, skills, talents, and appearance. We pick, choose, and decide where each of us falls based on what we believe to be our merits and worth. We tell people their value is based solely on what you can do, give, be for me.

[pullquote width="300" float="left"]There is no way I could possibly be everything to everyone. To be pretty enough. Skinny enough. Smart, rich, funny, and talented enough to make everyone happy.[/pullquote]

It’s depressing when my thoughts trail off like this. I become overwhelmed. Thinking this world is too much. There is no way I could possibly be everything to everyone. To be pretty enough. Skinny enough. Smart, rich, funny, and talented enough to make everyone happy. To make everyone think I am worth a spot on the hierarchy of good enough. The hierarchy of worldly worth and value.

Where is our hope in all this? Who will ever stand up for me? Give me a break and say “Stop working. Stop striving.” I need a hero. We need a hero - a hero who truly believes that we are enough.

Then there’s a moment of clarity. How silly of me. I forgot. We do have a hero. One who was born a long time ago and made us worthy of love, wholeness, and righteousness: Jesus. He stood up for us on a cross and again in an empty tomb.

I haven’t always thought of Jesus as my hero. As the one who looks upon me and says “You are enough.” I never pictured myself as the friend He talked of before His death, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) A friend worthy of such love. That just wasn’t me. I wasn’t “enough” yet to be considered for such a sacrifice.

I, like so many others, have been caught up in climbing the invisible ladder to the top. Each rung costing me a piece of my true self. Trying to be someone I am not. To fit a certain size and mold, one that I was never meant for. So others can tell me I am worthy; that I have value.

What I couldn’t see was that my worth has never been based on the world’s hierarchy, but on one simple truth: I am His. God's creation. His redeemed daughter.

The path to realizing this truth is hard, because it requires stepping out and choosing to attack the lie. The lie of “I am just not enough.”

To do this, I have to be diligent to replace the lie with the truth of God’s word. What does He have to say about me being enough? Genesis 1:27, 30 says “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them…God saw all that He had made and it was very good.” This is the only time God says what He has made is very good. Not just good, but very good.

I believe that even as He looks down on me now, He still sees His creation as very good.

He sees my quirks. My love of cake. My ability to speak in movie quotes. My love of creating and beauty. All the little things He created me to be. And He says, “It is very good.”

Here’s the rub. It’s not just about me. No, sweet daughter of God, He does the same for you. Yes, you! You who are striving, working, doing all you can to reach the top. A ideal that doesn’t exist, but goes on and on. Living every day, trying to match the picture of the perfect you and the perfect life you've created in your head.

You who are “…weary and heavy laden…” (Matt. 11:28) from the weight of the world’s expectations. He looks upon you. He sees you and says “…Take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:35).

The world and its hierarchy no longer matter. You and all you are is enough.

I am not a master at remembering this. I am still in a place of learning and choosing truth over lies. I still climb the ladder. It isn’t always easy, but won’t you come along with me? Let’s leave behind the world and all its unrealistic expectations. Let’s live in the truth.

Right now, we have a way to fight. We know we have someone standing up for us and speaking the Truth: “You are enough.”

-AP

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