A “Good Enough” Man

I sat waiting for my professor to arrive for lunch. I was waiting to hear what he had to say about 70 pages of writing he helped me research. While I felt sure he would have positive and congratulatory comments, a familiar and old voice talking to me as I waited. The latest skirmish in a lifelong battle was rattling inside my heart as I waited for my mentor to arrive with his verdict about my work (or was it his verdict about me?).

What does it mean to be “good enough?” When you close your eyes or search your goals, what do you find that would make you “good enough?” What functionally would validate the space you take up and air you breathe? My question is driven by my story and a giant assumption: Most of us are slaves to an ideal of what “good enough” looks like that always excludes who we are right now. Somewhere, probably in multiple places and relationships, we find reasons to doubt who we are is “good enough” to others and God.

Move past the theology most of us share, telling us how our sinful nature and willfulness make us not “good enough” to satisfy God’s standard for being His image bearer. Instead, push toward the reality of Jesus’ dying for us unrighteous and broken vessels. Fight to get close enough actually to see Jesus making a way for us to be accepted sons and daughters of God the Father. Push your way through the crowd of old voices and failures, getting your heart close enough to hear Jesus say, “You’re safe now! You’re rescued. You are accepted, and you are good. I made sure of it!” Then ask yourself again, what it would take for you to be “good enough?”

Most of us have voices in our head that aren’t our own. They are voices of actual people we know. They are people we want to please or be proud of us. They are our fathers, mothers, pastors, spouses, children, and even childhood foes who have told us how we are not “good enough.” It is these people our hearts hear when looking at our life and feel the need to “be better.” They are the ones we exhaust ourselves trying to please or prove wrong.

I am always surprised at all the ways I try to prove myself to my father. I sacrifice peace and joy as I work my fingers and soul to a bloody mess so that I can prove my worth. I am always a child holding up my accomplishments, asking my father if I am worth his time. I do the same with my wife, daughter, friends, and even my mentor. My heart is always asking: “Does my work make me good enough for you to love me?” I have stopped asking myself the question because I know the answer will always be a harsh “no.” But I am still willing to kill myself working “hard enough” to get people to think I am worth their time and affection.

But if we can push our way through the crowd of voices and failures to see Jesus, we find something better than we could ever accomplish. We find an artist better than Michelangelo giving us permission to tell the Father that we painted the Sistine Chapel ourselves. We find a writer better Hemmingway putting our name on a prize-winning manuscript instead of his own. But these images don’t do justice to what we find in Jesus. We find a home, acceptance, and family. We see “good enough” being given us, so we never have to make up for what we lack. We are “good enough” just as we are because Jesus gives us His “good enough.”

Because of this, we can have goals and desires to be and do without trying to prove our worth to God or the world. We can work hard but rest easy. We can strive for greatness in our work without having to question our value. We can be children, spouses, parents, friends, and even believers without using others to validate our existence. We can actual “be.” So what do we have to do to be finally “good enough?” Nothing. It’s already been done for us.