Picture this...
Your high school student, a senior, is getting ready to head out onto the court to face one of the toughest opponents in the league. This is a pivotal game, it will decide the league champion. They have heard the pregame talk by the coach and they focused and ready.
They are physically and emotionally ready, they have their game face on. Just as they break their team huddle to head out onto the court they look up at you in the stands to get a final boost of encouragement. You stand up to cheer them on and at the top of your lungs you yell, “Go out there and be good enough!”
Go Out There And Be Good Enough!
It feels a little deflating, doesn’t it?
I have never yelled those words to my kids and I I never heard my parents shout out those words to me either. In fact, I have never heard any parent shout out those words to one of their children as they were about to engage in some form of competition.
Good enough? Seriously? Who wants to be good enough? The very sound of those words can send an unpleasant feeling coursing through my body. Yet the older and hopefully wiser I get I want to practice it more. Is it really wisdom and experience speaking or foolishness and stupidity?
Here are my thoughts. When it comes to competition, I will never yell, “Go out there and be good enough.” It’s not really a good rallying cry and I think we would all agree, that it feels like a great way to kill motivation. Okay? Enough said.
Enough!
However, In a world of “I’m not thin enough, cute enough, smart enough, happy enough and don’t have enough time, enough money, enough friends, enough things or I didn’t try hard enough, I didn’t work enough, and didn’t give enough.” I think it’s time to say, enough!
Why Good Enough Is The New Great
I say that “Good Enough” is the new great! Why do we need more? Why do we need better all the time? Why do we always feel like we are lacking? We are leaders, we are God’s masterpiece for crying out loud.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 NLT
That word, “masterpiece” is the Greek word poiēma. It’s where we get our word poem! The definition of which is characterized by great beauty of language or expression! We are God’s workmanship His masterpiece, His poem. We are His expression of great beauty! We are, enough!
Good Enough?
Practicing “good enough” does not mean compromising excellence in what we do. We are reminded in Colossians 3:23 NLT to, “Work hard and cheerfully at whatever we do, as though we were working for the Lord rather than for people. When we work we do our best and we do it with excellence because we are doing it for the Lord.”
I think the words “good enough” get a bad rap. When we use them separately we love them it’s when we put them right next to each other that it gets uncomfortable. We associate them with a lack of excellence or the bad brother of mediocrity but neither is the case.
It’s Good! And Enough!
Take a look at Genesis 1:31 and 2:1 NLT, “Then God looked over all He had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day. So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was finished.”
“Here’s my problem. I rarely see things as “good” or “finished.””
Let’s remember this simple truth.
Excellence does not equal perfect and good enough does not equal mediocre.
Maybe we could best describe good enough as simply doing our personal best with what we have at the time AND being content with the outcome.
There may also be some healthy side effects to practicing good enough. When we practice good enough we can actually reduce the amount of energy we expend trying to be perfect. I’m sure we could reduce the stress in our life by half and I would say, at the very least, practicing good enough can create some balance and restored energy not to mention a little perspective in our lives.
Questions:
1. How do you feel about being good enough?
2. What emotions do you feel when you say or hear those words?
3. Do you believe you are good enough?
Photo Credit: empowered living.