Am I enough?

January 27, 2025January 27, 2025

Our best is enough…

Over the last few months I have joined in initiating three new projects. Each one totally different. A community centre. A writers’ group. An apple orchard. And with each I feel out of my depth.

Yet over the years I have learned that it is okay to feel that way. It is okay to look at a blank sheet of paper and go blank. It is okay to feel lost.

But, I have found that the ideas do come. A random chat on the street. A person who has been there before and shares their expertise. The encouragement of a friend.

And when I give my best and ‘work at it with all [my] heart, as working for the Lord,’* something always happens. The initiatives take on a life. They bless.

*Colossians 3:23 (photo by Tim Douglas: www.pexels.com)

April 29, 2023

At 7am, I headed out the door to walk the 4 mile round trip to the hardware shop. I desperately needed some emotional replenishing, as well as a can of paint for an outdoor swing.

I started painting as soon as I got back, but an hour later that paint pot slipped from my fingers. In horror, I watched it fall and tip over. I was only fast enough to save a third of it.

For an instant, I didn’t know what to do, but the idea of a large metal spoon came to mind. I ran inside to grab one and then began scooping up the spilled paint. In the end, I rescued another third, just enough to finish the job.

It felt like a practical lesson from God… Despite all our mistakes and lack of emotional capacity, God makes sure that we have enough, that we are enough, for the jobs before us.

(photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo)

February 22, 2022February 22, 2022

Hand-made by God

The question is – who knows me? I have met those who told me I was not enough. They vowed that they could remake me… Sadly, I trusted them.

But there was always another voice calling out, one that took me years to hear. For, “This is what the Lord says – he who created you…, he who formed you…: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.'” (Isaiah 43:1) How I cried when I finally grasped that I had been following the wrong creators. But God picked me up and hugged me. He said, “Do not fear.”

And as I have gone on with him, I am relearning who I am. For God made me, not factory-style, but hand-made. He knows me.

Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

May 15, 2019May 15, 2019

Who are you?

At low points in my life I have wondered – how would things have looked if circumstances had been kinder? Would I have turned out more educated, more wealthy, more socially accepted? Would I have become famous?

But then I remember… “This is what the LORD says, he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid.” (Isaiah 44:2)

God doesn’t need wealth or things to make us into the people we are. He uses his creative heart. He moulded our bodies and he moulds our hearts. We don’t have to be afraid that we have missed out in life. With God we are enough.

Photo by Samuel Castro on Unsplash