“How much is enough?”  When you hear a preacher raise that question, you can be pretty sure than an implicit criticism is coming along for the ride.  The judgmental Bible thumper is asking this question as the start of a series of questions: ‘How many cars can one person drive?  How many houses can one person live in?  Do you know when to push away from the table?  How much do you need in your bank account?’  Rest easy.  This preacher is not going to spring a bunch of judgmental questions at you.

“How much is enough?” as I see it, is not a question about excess or our ability to have self-control over our greed.  It is a question about our sufficiency.

How much do I have to achieve professionally before I will feel ok?

How good, how kind, how high-achieving do my kids have to be before I feel like I have been a good parent?

How many romantic date nights, and surprise deliveries of flowers will make me a good spouse?

How guilty do I have to feel for my sins before I can finally stop rehearsing my past mistakes through sleepless nights?

What will make me acceptable?

What will make me lovable?

How much is enough?

Paul spoke a lot about this, but in language that doesn’t resonate as much with our modern ears.  He spoke about “righteousness under the law,” but what he was really asking was “What will make a person acceptable to God?”  “What will make us good enough?”  “How much is enough?”

The answer to this question is not about our achievement or our perfection, but about God’s love that isn’t a reward for our achievement, but an unalterable fact that doesn’t depend on us and cannot be changed by us.  “For by grace you were saved through faith, and this is not your own doing…” (Ephesians 2:8)

Prayer:  Holy One, I am never going to be ‘enough.’  Thank you, God, for love that is enough.  Amen.