I generally love the new year. As I mentioned before, I am a sucker for a clean slate, even if it is an arbitrary line in the sand. Lots of people do the word for the new year, and I don’t normally play along specifically and dogmatically, but I do like to get to thinking about what the new year will bring and what I want out of it. 2018 was to be a transitional year for me and I focused on a few different aspects I mentioned and summed up as listen, pray and trust. I tried to keep those concepts in mind, and I think they served me well.

This year, however, a single word/concept keeps floating to the surface–enough. And, at first, I heartily dismissed it. I wasn’t a fan of the connotations my mind came up with–mediocre, lazy, adequate. But it kept coming back. Enough. Okay, I thought, I will dig a little deeper. And like a good little word nerd, I headed to the dictionary.

The definition of enough is as follows:

Enough: adj. occurring in such quantity, quality, or scope as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations. (my emphasis added)

Enough: adv. in or to a degree or quantity that satisfies or that is sufficient or necessary for satisfaction.

What I couldn’t get around at first was the idea of adequate or barely meeting a requirement. I love clearing hurdles by miles! I like exceeding expectations and blowing things out of the water. But then again I considered the constant striving, the never satisfied. These are darker iterations of this desire for more, higher, faster, stronger. What if enough was truly enough? What if exceeding was a waste, and ingratitude for what I had?

The more I thought about enough, the more I could see the beauty of meeting needs, satisfying expectations, but not wastefully exceeding. There is an almost economical appreciation of being content with enough. Enough of what you have to offer, enough of what you have to accomplish, enough of what you have already. It is quite simply, enough.

And so, for 2019, I have decided I will focus on enough. I am enough. You are enough. God’s provision is always enough. I am looking forward to seeing how this will play out in 2019. I will have to unlearn the muscle memory of 41 years of striving and of pushing for more. However, I think enough’s time has finally come.