“We’re Cultured!” Thursdays: Thinking we are not good enough

I am in a love/hate relationship with the word ‘enough’. It depicts a saturation point, a limitedness. ‘Not good enough’ is even worse, it just depicts that you might have something, but you are still lacking. You might be on your way, on the right path, but nope, you’re not there yet.

Who likes to hear a prospective boss that you are good, but just not good enough for the job? Or that you are good on the keyboard, but not good enough to make it for the band?

I like to think that it manifests so much more with the Asian mindset of excellence in everything, or say, the Singaporean mentality of ‘kiasu-ness’ (the fear of losing). We were brought up thinking that 98/100 isn’t good enough because someone else in class has gotten 99/100.

We seem to always strive for something better. We are always working towards wanting to have or to be something better. To be smarter, be thinner, be friendlier, be better at whatever we are doing. We have to work to get better and one day we will be good enough.

Don’t take me wrongly, not staying complacent is important. But in our Christian walk, we tend to swing from one end to the other. We either think we’re all fine and dandy and that since times are good we don’t need God, or that we’re still needing that bit more to be completely right with God.

We got to pray more, we got to attend more church activities, we got to read the bible more, we got to stop sinning, we got to cultivate more fruits of the Spirit. It seems like what we got brought up learning in church – those unspoken words, the expectations – they lead us to thinking that to keep our salvation we have to at least attend church and youth group every week.

I think it has come a time where we start looking up and realising again the extent of grace that He extended to us. That grace did not only save us from eternal death, but gave us eternal life, and made us coheirs with Christ, by which now we can reign in life.

It is not longer about being not good enough to do something – we can already do it because along with getting saved from an eternity in hell, we have freedom from all strongholds, all bondage. It is like how in bible study class, our teacher pointed out that in Galatians 5:1 it says to “not be burdened again by the yoke of slavery”.

We are already free, why then do we slog for fear of losing our salvation just like that. Why do we go to church as an obligation to the commitments we have in service?

We do not lack anything else, because He has given us everything we need. We are no longer not good enough for anything, we are already good enough because He made us good enough. Man, He even made us “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Let us not think anymore that we’re not good enough. That we are still lacking. He has given us abundance through His grace. Let us serve Him and live for Him compelled by the love He first gave, and live in that liberty that He died to give us.