Are you enough? Our self help narcissistic culture certainly seems to think so. You need to find peace and worth from within. You should tell yourself how wonderful and beautiful and worthy you are and then live accordingly. This works in the short term: I am enough, no one can make me feel less than. But what happens when the fuzzy feelings wear off? When you don't meet your own standards of what is good. When deep down, despite the positive self-talk, you actually think that you aren't enough. Should you just try harder? Reinforce your worthiness and think happy thoughts? Thinking you can somehow convince yourself you're enough if you try harder is actually part of the toxic self-help culture. Its all on you. You're failing at making yourself feel good about yourself, you're failing at feeling worthy. You should be stronger, more resilient, less impacted by what others think...blah blah blah...But you aren't enough, and you know it. Despite your very best efforts, you are not the person you wish you were. The good news is there is an answer and it doesn't come from looking within and squeezing more positivity out of yourself.
The answer is God. He makes you enough, because in yourself, you actually are not capable of being enough. And without Jesus you never will be. This sounds like bad news, a spiral of shame and low self esteem waiting to happen. But, it's actually the exact opposite. It's not on you; the answer does not lie within yourself at all. You can stop trying so hard and pulling yourself up again and again by your bootstraps. You can stop beating yourself up for failing again, for being insecure again, for questioning your own worth again. The answer is not within, it is completely outside yourself. God. He loved you and knew you before the foundation of the Earth. Think about that. He is the Creator of the entire universe and He wants a relationship with you. And He wants that relationship despite knowing EVERYTHING about you. These may sound like Christian cliches, but when you really stop to think about them, they are profoundly true and beautiful. In Christ, you are enough and nothing you do will ever change that.
