The big idea that I have been meditating on quite a bit for the last year or two can be summed up in a single word: enough.
I am all for redeeming the concept of ambition and have written on it quite a bit. It’s good to aspire to great things for a great God. And it’s good to test your limits and capacity. That being said, a lot of what people call ambition is no more than discontentment with their lot in life. And consequently, they exhaust themselves in the pursuit of something that likely won’t happen and, if it does, will not be as satisfying as they imagine.
As a related side note, I do think this is one of the great sources of irritability and anxiety that I see ruling over so many right now.
The obvious key to getting enough is realizing that nothing will ever be enough if you aren’t right with God. God, after all, is the only true God; therefore, the promises He makes, He keeps. Anything else that we look to for ultimate satisfaction is a false god, and like all idols, they make false promises. So contentment cascades down from the fountain of life that is Jesus.
I say cascades down because being right with God is the beginning of being able to know your place in creation and with others. It allows you to start to determine what is enough in all these other contexts. It would be a super-spiritual mistake to say all that matters is that you are right with God. Yes, it matters. Yes, it is the main thing. But no, it’s not the only thing. Being right with the limitless God brings into focus your limits, and it changes how you labor and what you labor for.
I just got done preaching Psalm 8, and one of the great takeaways is that though I am small compared to the great expanse above me, and even smaller compared to the God who made both, I matter to Him. Maybe I don’t matter to you. Certainly, I don’t matter to a whole lot of people. And maybe if you compare me to someone else, they are greater in whatever sense. But the God who made all and who is greater than all cares about me, and because of the work of His Son, I have His approval. Paul said that no one stood with him before Caesar, but the Lord did, and that was enough to allow him to stand boldly for the gospel. It didn’t mean he didn’t care about other people or that he didn’t want to see his mission complete. He did. But he could labor without anxiety, without worry, because his labor was done in the Lord, for the Lord. And whatever he got done was enough.
Much more could be said about enough, and I certainly have more thoughts. But one little application: it is my observation that social media is driven by comparison. It’s a place for you to come and look at people who have much more than you. And if you could be like them, then you would have enough. Or perhaps, to flip it, it’s a place for you to come and look down on people who have much less than you, meaning that you are better than them because you have more. More of what? More of whatever.
And, of course, comparison is the thief of joy, but it’s also the seedbed of bitterness and envy. And if you hang out in the wrong algorithm, it becomes a toxic sludge of discontentment that makes you radioactive in all of life, and nothing will ever be enough, even God Himself.
This short article seems to be saying that if I'm right with God and working diligently, the progress I make, whether great, or not so great, is, in God's eyes, enough; therefore, I don't need to be anxious about how quickly I'm making some goal or process come to fruition. That's sounds like a good way to look at much of what I'm working on in my daily efforts. Thanks, Foster. You are writing helpful articles.