He is Enough

Some people meet change in one day, like a quick but delightful coffee date. For others, change comes in a blooming relationship that grows over a lifetime. Jesus changes my life every day.

The story really begins before I was even born, with a man reaching the end of himself and the beginning of what would become a deep and abiding relationship with the God of the universe. It begins with a teenage girl finding her way to the cross, growing to be a woman sold out to Jesus. Two people, falling in love with each other and with the God who ordained their lives before time began. A legacy was born.

I am the child of a legacy, born to parents who love(d) Jesus more than life itself. They set out to do one thing and one thing only with their children: Surrender. Like Hannah with her precious baby boy, Samuel, my parents set me down on the altar of obedience from Day 1. There, the story takes off.

I've loved Jesus for a long time...At least, "loved" the way the world loves. Because you can "love" someone and live unchanged. You can't LOVE someone and live unchanged. I came to Jesus on my own terms, demanding salvation in exchange for partial surrender. I wanted to LOVE life and Jesus. It took a long time for me to realize that Jesus doesn't offer an "entree only" kinda deal. He is the FULL meal...take it or leave it. I just wanted the sandwich.

Then, in contrast to my perfectly perfect world, the unthinkable happened and my world was rocked. My daddy, the one who was the clearest picture of my heavenly Daddy, got sick. Really sick. And suddenly, the world wasn't safe anymore. I didn't LOVE life, because life hated me. And all I had, the only stable thing in my cracked world, was Jesus. He was faithful. I had heard that my whole life, but never was it real in the midst of suffering. Now it was. He was unchangeable. Despite all the lies I had believed my whole life--"It's all gonna be fine"--it was not fine. But He hadn't changed. For the first time, I was forced to accept His terms:

"If anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross every day, and follow me continually" (Luke 9:23).

I realized Jesus doesn't call me to safe living. He doesn't allow me to keep my stuff and dreams and desires. He demands that I give it all to Him. Everything. He demands that I live recklessly for the sake of the Gospel. And in return, I get HIM. Not Him AND what He can do for me, just HIM. And He was enough.

He was enough.

Now, every day is a journey into that phrase. Knowing that He is enough, experiencing that He is enough, telling others that He is enough. He has taken my stubborn heart, set on what I want my future to be, and softened it. He took me from, "I will never go to Africa!" to "God, I'll go with you!" From, "I could never live without X," to "Jesus, take away everything but yourself." From, "I can't live without my dad!" to "God, it hurts but YOU ARE ENOUGH."

Nothing else in this world will ever be enough.

Do you believe that He is enough?