Keeping Our Center ~ Day 46

You are enough. That’s always been another consistent sermon theme for me. You know they say that pastors really preach to themselves, well, it’s true. This is a message I constantly need to hear.

There are probably a gazillion reasons why we might feel this way from parents constantly criticizing us, to a coach who humiliated us in front of our team, to being different and being bullied because of it. One woman I met said that while she had a fairly normal growing up experience she somehow still had a sense for most of her life that she wasn’t quite good enough. It sounded to me like that feeling was similar to background music in a store… not really blatant, but there nonetheless. It took her until mid-life to stop dwelling so much on that negative background music and start focusing on the positive side of her life and herself. It was a beautiful thing to hear, but something that too many of us have a hard time doing.

Often we beat ourselves up, believing that we’ve failed ourselves, our families and our God. As Julia Robert’s character says in Pretty Woman, “It’s easier to believe the bad stuff.” And it doesn’t help that so many of our churches have made it perfectly clear that we’re all sinners (don’t even get me started). After those messages have been drilled into one’s head, or played subliminally as background music for years, it is hard not to believe them. And that is sad, because I firmly believe that is not what the Holy One wants us to believe.

As we use this time of isolation to draw closer to the Divine and ourselves, know that God doesn’t dwell on the times we’ve messed up. God does not keep a naughty and nice list like Santa. God does not keep a list of who gets into heaven and hell (which does not exist). I believe God is like any good parent, mentor, or friend, and says, “Okay, so you screwed up, let’s learn and move on.” And even more than that, God says, “You are beautiful and unique with love and skills to share, so do that! You are enough!”

Love & Light,

Kaye