My stomach usually tells me when I've had enough. It was calibrated by God to send me a personal IM when I've crossed the fullness thresh hold. Nerves are wired the same way. Most of us can tell when when someone is standing on the last one. And, the body has other innate devices to signal when we're close to an end. Sun-burned skin screams "enough". Ear drums vibrate when they've had enough. And, so on and so on, down the line.
Assessing another year often involves questions about enough. When I scroll down the end of year inventory list the gauges by which I measure success or failure aren't always so quantitative. Some are numbers. But, most of them times I'm just asking if my performance or activity or participation or disciplline was enough. Did I give enough, or love enough, or serve enough, worship enough, relate enough, connect enough, exercise enough, understand enough, play enough, rest enough, and you get the picture. How does enough figure in the evaluation process? Maybe more, how do I know when enough is enough?
Finishing strong, though, does involve dealing with the enough question(s). There are some limits on human activity where enough is actually easy to calculate. Certainly we can know when we've spent enough or had enough to drink, or watched enough TV. Let the spiritual side of life kick in then determine the point at which we've prayed enough or studied Scripture enough or worshiped enough. Find a scale that registers when we've served enough or helped enough or given enough.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about becoming weary to the point of saying "enough". At Second Thessalonians 3:13 he wrote, "Brothers, do not grow weary in doing good". Evidently there's no limit about doing good, whatever that may encompass. Jesus said to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). There's no enough in this formula. And, loving our neighbor as ourself makes enough seem a little lame here too.
Finishing strong begins with my understanding that the measurement of enough may not apply in every category. I can beat myself up for being a slacker in some of these areas and try to raise the bar on my own contributions in the future. Maybe finishing strong involves asking the right questions. "Was it enough?" may not be the right angle in some areas. There's never enough in most.
To be like John the Baptist may be the attitude that wins. He said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). Maybe finishing strong and starting on the right note involves the determination that there be more of Him and less of me. The promise of Scripture is that when He and His kingdom are first, everything else somehow falls into place. It's a promise with teeth.
Maybe I can't quantify enough. But, more means something. Maybe there just should be more.
Happy New Year. 2014. More.
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