Enough Without

“We are looking, striving for the thing that will make us whole only to find that we are enough without.”

Loren Thornburg

We’ve all done it.  It usually starts with the words, “If only.”  Somehow we think that when “if only” we get the job, find a spouse, or get out of debt life will be complete and we will feel enough.  Yet, the problem is that enough is a concept of the inside more than the outside.  Wholeness is not a matter of our status but rather it means to be complete in itself.  That means that we don’t need anything else to make us complete but that we are complete without that thing.  Whether or not things ever change on the outside we can find we are complete.  You are enough…just as you are…right here.  You are enough without that things you’ve been waiting to find.  Stop looking and start enjoying.  

“And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.”

Genesis 29:35 NASB

There is a story of a girl named Leah.  She was the undesired older sister.  In ancient times when marriage functioned much differently she was married to the same man as her younger sister.  It was her younger sister that the man loved.  All she wanted was to be loved.  She hoped that giving him a son would make him love her more.  But after three sons and no sign of change she changed her tune.  Instead, she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” I love this picture.  Leah stops trying and stops waiting for something to bring about her desired change.  Instead she starts praising God, knowing whether or not her husband, Jacob, responds in the way she is longing for that God is still enough.  He is still good, sovereign and worthy to be praised.  He is enough to trust when it seems we fall short.  The One who makes us whole and calls us enough is more than enough to praise even when our longings are left unmet.  So this time, whatever your 'this time' is, praise the Lord.