The Culture of Comparison
Social media has lent itself to the creation of an unprecedented culture of comparison. We are now bombarded by everyone’s perfect relationships, children, food, bodies, vacations, and homes like never before. Predictably, this has, in turn, given rise to what has been dubbed “Facebook depression,” a general feeling of inadequacy and jealousy resulting from our being weighed and found wanting in our own eyes.
Much electronic ink has been spilled to combat this new malady. One example of this is the simple message, “You are enough.”
Are You Really “Enough”?
This is very comforting to me — for the fleeting moment before it collides with both the Word of God and my everyday experience. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:48, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” God defines reality, and to Him, “enough” is nothing short of perfection. I am in a constant battle against self-righteousness, jealousy, laziness, and many other failures and sins each day. Telling myself I am enough doesn’t make it so.
The Gospel of “Enough”
Am I left just to despair, then? Far from it.
John Frame says this: “Paul teaches in Romans not only the general fact that we are redeemed in Christ, but that when Christ died we died in him, and when he rose from the dead we rose with him: ‘Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life’ (Romans 6:3–4). Similarly, Peter says that our regeneration to new life comes from Jesus’ resurrection (1 Peter 1:3-4). Jesus’ death for sin is our death to sin, and his resurrection from the dead is our resurrection to newness of life: ‘[God,] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:5-6).”
Better Than “Enough”
I am united to the all-sufficient Christ in His death, burial and resurrection! His sufficiency is now mine! The very power that raised Him from the dead now dwells in me, according to Romans 8:11 and Ephesians 1:19-20. These are not just empty words, they are life-giving and hope-giving truth. How can I ever praise my LORD enough? Oh, for a thousand tongues, indeed!
Have you been trying to hang your hope on platitudes? Do you look to your own performance, or lack thereof, for your sense of well-being? You are a multi-billionaire, metaphorically speaking, in Christ; why choose to live hand-to-mouth, on the street begging for bread from strangers instead of drawing on the rich inheritance that is yours? Will you meditate and saturate your mind with the Scriptures above, praying for the Spirit to help you understand and appreciate the sufficiency of Christ in you?
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).
