What more do you want?

Have you ever felt like good was never good enough? As I write, I’m aware that it’s been a long week. On top of the normal pressures of life, I’m juggling the details of multiple big decision scenarios in our home. College plans and budget are the topics for this week, but the feeling is a repetitive one. I just got off the phone. Chris graciously let me vent, “Don’t they get it? Is it ever enough?”It doesn’t have to be your kids. Maybe it feels like it’s never good enough for your boss or your parents. Most of us can think of a time when we were giving it all we had… and still there were grumbles. Sometimes, it feels like nothing is ever good enough.I’m pretty sure God feels this way, too.[bctt tweet="Have you ever felt like good was never good enough?"]Let’s be honest: We’re the ones who screwed up the perfect garden and the perfect plan. Sure, you can deflect and say God allowed us to choose. He did. (But that’s like the child caught stealing candy blaming his mom for having possession of something so sweet.) In an unbelievable way, when we screwed it up, God was quick to offer His Son as the remedy to the chaos and pain a selfish choice created.In Colossians 1:15, this Son, Jesus, is described as “the image of the invisible God,” and then we learn that “all things were created through Him and for Him.” If you take a moment and list out everything Jesus did and who He is as described in Colossians 1:17-20, you’ll be blown away.But before we move too fast, did you catch who Jesus is? For all those people who felt like Yahweh was too distant, or too mysterious, God responded. The invisible God said, “OK. I’ll make myself visible.” Yet how many people in 2016 would still complain that God seems distant?I’m the first to acknowledge it would be awesome if I could have a face-to-face priority time with Jesus. But really, how can we complain? If God created a physical being who never aged and walked the earth now, we would have a problem with that, too. No, we didn’t get to live in the times when Jesus would walk by us on the way to the temple, but He did walk this earth and make an invisible God very personal. So personal, in fact, that many wrote of it… so personal that His presence changed the trajectory of mankind.Can I be on God’s side for a moment? What more could God have done to prove that He was real and He loved us? God didn’t hold back one ounce of Himself. Did you catch what pleased God?

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.(Colossians 1:19-20)

God put ALL of Himself in His Son. He didn’t hold back one thing, nor did His Son hold back one thing, in order that we might experience a peace we didn’t deserve.In the midst of all the ways we can struggle, may we each stop long enough to thank God for going out of His way to prove not only who He was, but also the immense love He has for us.I challenge you to stop now and tell God in specific ways how He has been enough for you. Recount His faithfulness and don’t get stuck thinking God is too distant. Even after His Son’s time on earth was done, God still wasn’t satisfied. Now, the Holy Spirit reigns in each of us. He wants nothing more than for you to realize how close He is and how much He loves you.