Am I Good Enough Now? (Part I)

"Yeah, I always feel like someone could do my job so much better than me", she confessed over a cafeteria lunch on that overcast Spring day.

I was astonished-- she is so, so good at her job. Like, it amazes me how dedicated, disciplined and caring she is through her leadership.

We continued talking, honestly divulging our deep seated fears and uncertainties over our job performance. I wondered if I was the best person for the job, and she wondered the same. I told her that at the end of the day I really want to be accepted and I long for approval of man. She confessed the same. And in that moment we realized how similar we were-- two young women, seeking to serve the Lord, attending a small Christian University, who were afraid of disappointing others.

And if experience has taught me anything, I don't think we're alone.

I work with a lot of people. I have a lot of conversations. I hear a lot of fears. And the more time I spend hearing people's stories, the more I realize that a resounding question of the human race, is this: "Am I good enough?" Everyone seems to be asking it.

Deep down, we fear that we are failing, that we are a disappointment, that we aren't quite good enough. That somehow everyone else has found the secret to 'having it all together' and somehow we never got the memo.

Our conversation continued, and I told her "I think where the problem comes in for me is through comparison. We compare our insides to everyone else's outsides..."

As I think about this epidemic, I wonder where we got off thinking that we aren't 'good enough.' I wonder who made us believe that? I wonder who spoke those lies?

I have some educated guesses, but who gets to override what the Lord says and tell us that we are a failure, a disappointment, that we're not accepted?

The lies are so embedded, sometimes it feels nearly impossible to untangle the truth from the lies and to throw out the lies and grasp tightly to the truth.

I don't have the answers to this dilemma, but I invite you to join me for this series, asking and attempting to answer the age old question: "Am I good enough?"