When it’s too much...#INSUFFICIENT

It’s Monday again, and —-wait, how did you just react to that? Did your shoulders square up or droop? Did you take a deep, invigorating breath, or expel a sigh? Whatever you’re facing this week, whether it’s the fire-breathing dragon in the corner office, the mean girl in the next cubicle or the inadequacies you see when you look in the mirror, the fact that you’re facing the same ongoing battles over and over doesn’t make them any easier, or the outcome any more certain.  Some days you still feel like the tiny 6th-grader, overloaded with heavy books, forgetting your locker combination, getting bullied out of your lunch money, and overwhelmed by the crowd of boisterous over-achievers.
There you are, just trying to get by without being run over, caught up and pulled down in the undertow. Much like the chaos and turbulence of a hallway crowded with middle-schoolers hyped up on sodas and hormones, some of the biggest rivers we have to cross are overwhelming, mind-boggling and equally treacherous to navigate. You feel so unqualified, unappreciated, so unlike the Mona Lisa/Supermom/Wonderwoman mosaic you’ve created for yourself—made of smiling selfies and Pinterest moments.
When it comes to measuring up to expectations in every area, you don’t feel picture-perfect at all. You feel insufficient. The truth is, we are. We are not enough, alone, to overcome even the smallest of everyday challenges, so how can we expect to rise above the worst ones—to climb—or move—the mountains, slay the dragons, and finish the marathon?  As long as we push ourselves, and push the limits, trying to become the hero of our story, we find that beyond every finish line is another brutal stretch of rocky road. And another. And another. Until we realize there is a double gap that looms between here and victory. Alone, I am not enough. And it is too much for me, alone.
It begins here, with Jesus’ own words, quoted by the Apostle Paul as he expressed the agony of dealing with an ongoing challenge in his life. “My grace is sufficient for you,” Jesus told him. “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Before we can ever begin to find that we fit the role God has carved out for us, we must recognize that whenever we’re feeling insufficient and even insignificant, it’s because we are relying on who WE are, instead of who HE is. We are sizing up the challenge based on our own human abilities, instead of our divine purpose.
This week, we will explore three reasons why being “less than” or “not good enough” is actually MORE than enough cause to expect victory. It’s a paradox, as many kingdom principles are—the opposite of what you would expect—but it’s a powerful concept: that your insufficiencies and weaknesses are the qualities that make you a prime candidate for being the hero, after all!