Enough

Enough. Is that a word we really ever say? Maybe when we are at an Italian restaurant and they are grating cheese over our fettuccini we may say “Enough.” But only because other people start to look at you funny if the parmesan piles up too high. I am 32 years old and I sadly cannot think of a time in my life I have said “I have Enough :blank:” and truly meant it. I could blame it on my upbringing or that I’m an American (whatever that means), but really its because deep down I am broken. Broken beyond my repair, a brokenness so deep I cannot say “Enough” because its true, I am not Enough.

In our tiny Anglican church in our tiny Midwestern town, we began with a dream. A dream to minister to our neighbors; a dream to save people, bring them out of despair and fill our used donated folding chairs with sinners. And we have ministered to our neighbors, we have filled our chairs with sinners. Even so, we are letting the word Enough hold us back. Every planning meeting I go to seems to the same theme, if we had more :blank: we could do this ministry better. More people, more money, more resources, more, more, more… Maybe in our desperate need to always have Enough we have yet again put a pretty dress on Enough and called it something else. Maybe we have just what we need; enough people, enough money, Enough, Enough, Enough. God has ordained us to serve this community. When we have needed something and abundance has poured in. Am I letting “if we had more” hold me back from following the ministry that God has for us?

It’s hard to come to Food Pantry once a month and maybe only have 1 or none families show up. God didn’t ask us to have an opinion on who showed up just to be available with food for when people do. God asks us to feed the poor, the sick and the hungry. Maybe all the people that would have come that week were blessed by someone else doing ministry in our town. Praise God!

It’s disappointing to come to church after the annual bazaar after having such fun conversations with people in our neighborhood the day before and see no new faces in the pews. Did I mention we have beautiful donated pews? Ones we didn’t have to pay for or really even know we needed? Maybe those fun conversations were the most important “church” they ever experienced. Maybe that snow cone one of our shy bearded men handed them gave them the joy they needed that day to hope for a better future. God didn’t ask me to have an opinion only to stand out in the sun all day and sell junk for a quarter.

My favorite hymn we sing is “Here I am Lord” I  sing it to Tully and Mo every night. I know Lee gets annoyed because sometimes I forget the words or run verses together and I just make  stuff up, but I have never gotten the chorus wrong “Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart!” If you lead me? Allowing God to lead me is the scariest thing I have ever done.  I must be annoying to God. God gives me a direction, I go asking the whole time “Are we there yet Dad? Are we there yet?!” I cannot even enjoy the ride because I am so anxious about what the next step will be.  I may have missed the blessing in the day because I was wanted more when actually what I had was Enough.

Enough. It’s a strange word. Strange because its alien to us. Strange because we live in a world that would crash and burn around us (or so we’re told) if every said “Enough” and actually meant it just once a day. What would that look like if we practice saying “Enough” once during our day. Start by saying it on something dumb, like the candy bowl on that sweet old ladies desk “No I’ll just take one chocolate, thanks. One is enough for me!” and actually sitting down in their office to ask how they are doing. Or maybe saying “Enough!” when the radio is playing that stupid song again this hour and listening to silence. I truly believe if we start saying Enough in the small things in life it will spill over to the large things. That is my imagine statement  I want us to be able to say “We have Enough” and not let our brokenness and fear hold us back. We can change our world, our town, our neighborhood because that is what God has called us to do; one blind step at a time. “Lord if you lead me- I will hold your people in my heart!”