I was reading thru my post of yesterday and realized that I am early in my writing career and I am already using ambiguous Christianized jargon that nobody (*and often including the writer) really understands. How often have you read something and right after reading it wondered “what in the world was he talking about?” I may have taken you to those heights (or lows) yesterday with several of the things I wrote about.
What I am not sure I was clear on is what I will coin a new term for,…. “enough-ment.” Is your life a life of enough-ment or not enough-ment. I will define as enough-ment as the state of having enough. I will define not-enough-ment as the state of never having enough. That begs for a clearer definition of what exactly is. According to the dictionary, enough is defined as have “all that is adequate or all that is required.”
So having now defined exactly what I am talking about, let me ask the question of us (you AND me); are you living in a state of all that is required or all that is adequate. or are you never seeming to be in that state?You always seem to require more, everything seems to be inadequate.
Don’t let this moment pass without seriously dealing with this question. We let ourselves get off too lightly sometimes when it comes to important spiritually ethical questions. We pander ourselves convincing ourselves that this just a cultural issue and not a deeply seeded spiritual problem enticing us away from a total commitment to serving our king.
Jesus was not being simply metaphorical when he said “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Where is your treasure? While we are looking at the definitions of words, what is a treasure? It is “something that has incredible precious value.” What are you valuing in your life? How do you demonstrate value? That is a good question…How do you demonstrate value? Do you treat something valuable with contempt, or for that matter do you treat it like any other thing? Or do you cherish your treasures, keeping them safe and well cared for?
This could devolve quickly so I will wrap it up with just a few more thoughts. Simply put, we need to re-define what is enough for us. If we do not, then nothing will ever be enough and our lives will continue o spiral out of control with the acquisition of things and we will never even realize it has happened.
What did Paul mean when he wrote to the Church at Colossae, when he said, Col. 3:1 ”Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Col. 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”
Paul seems pretty clear here, if your head is not in the right place you are walking a pretty narrow road to idolatry thru the gateway of greed; which by the way could be a synonym for “not enough-ment.” I implore you dear brothers and sisters, take seriously your propensity for “not enough-ment” it is a slippery slope to idolatry, which is as we all know an affront to our living King.
So what does it mean that Christ is enough? It simply means that you are satisfied in Him. You don’t need more stuff to fill the emptiness in your heart. You don’t something else to satisfy you. For me it could be something as simple as food. We use lots of things to satisfy our souls, our boredom, our loneliness, our discontentment, other than Christ.
From a practical perspective how do I deal with this”not enough-ment?” It is simply by occupying your life with something other than your flesh. Occupy your life with prayer, Bible study, compassion ministry rather than with TV, movies and eating out. Not that those are bad, but for many it is a staple to spending the precious minutes of their life. Hang out with friends, bring lost people into your fellowship, love them, serve them, do something redemptive, something reconciliatory for a searching generation.
Meditate, contemplate, serve. We would all do better by spending our lives on things which will out last it. We would all do better by setting our minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That is the only way I know to defeat consumerism, materialism, discontentment, boredom, self-centeredness and not enough-ment in my life.
