by Joanie Butman
An email solicitation arrived this week authored by Mr. Goodenough. His surname made me chuckle and wonder if it was a joke (it wasn’t). Not that someone with a last name like Butman has the right to laugh at anyone else’s name. I’ve often shared my belief that my surname is karma for making all those crank calls to the Lipshits during my adolescence. What goes around comes around.
All kidding aside, Mr. Goodenough’s unusual last name made me consider how frequently many of us feel anything but good enough. I don’t care if it’s a rejection from a school, employer, lover, athletic endeavors, or simply your own high expectations, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t felt not good enough about something – or everything. There’s actually a name for this malady - atelophobia. It’s easy to become a prisoner of perfection, a harsh task master. Nowhere does this self-defeating attitude rear its ugly head more than in spirituality. The irony is that Christ’s message of love and grace guarantees just the opposite. We will always be good enough simply because we are His. It isn’t about us – it’s about Jesus, and He will always be more than good enough. Your belief in that truth is all He asks.
Prior to Jesus’s arrival, the Jews were under the old covenant with more rules and regulations than anyone could possibly remember. No one was good enough to satisfy all of them, which is why Christ came. He explains in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” That is good news, which is what the word ‘gospel’ means. We don’t have to worry about being good enough because He is. His love and grace aren’t conditional on our performance but our belief in Him, and even that we won’t do perfectly.
Finally, I have a friend who always responds to the query, “How are you?” with a simple, “good enough.” Life’s not perfect and neither are we. May we all choose to embrace that mantra because even though life and humans aren’t always good, God is. Part of my inheritance as His child is the miracle that because of Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf, I am good enough.
