Two Thoughts

Just two thoughts, somehow connected to each other, for you to ponder.

one.

Brené Brown is my hero. (If you’ve been around me at all in the past week you know that I have *nerd alert* been listening to her book Daring Greatly on CD in my car, and I am obsessed.) 

Her book is about vulnerability and shame.  Yeah, you should read it.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“Connection is why we're here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. The power that connection holds in our lives was confirmed when the main concern about connection emerged as the fear of disconnection; the fear that something we have done or failed to do, something about who we are or where we come from, has made us unlovable and unworthy of connection.” 

“I believe that owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits.” 

She also talks about the concept of scarcity.  (Again, if you’ve been around me in the past week, I apologize for the obsessive repetition.)  Scarcity is her term for the idea that we believe we are “never enough”.  We are never good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, successful enough…fill in the blank.  I’d wage a bet that anyone you talk to could easily name the way they are, supposedly, “not enough.” She points out this idea that we perpetuate this idea of scarcity from the minute our alarm goes off in the morning until the moment our head hits the pillow at night.

What is the first thing you think when you wake up? That was not enough sleep.

Not enough sleep.

And what is the last thing we often think about when we are trying to fall asleep at night?  I didn’t have enough time to get everything done.

Not enough time.

We bookend our days with feelings of not enough. 

Mindblown? (Read. her. book.)

two.

I keep thinking that maybe when it comes to our faith we often overcomplicate it.  No matter how much I want to be educated and knowledgeable, no matter what podcasts I listen to or books I read, I always come back to the idea that it is really as simple as this:

God loves you.

That “simple” statement has implications beyond any theological or political debate; it is beautiful and messy and unfair and doesn’t make sense. It is the best news and the most unbelievable news and it really changes everything.

I have this sneaking suspicion that we often hide our fear of being known and loved behind intellectual armor, fighting against believing the good news with doubts and questions.

Don’t get me wrong.  I support those who question.  Who want to wrestle and truly understand theology.  I get that we all have different personalities and some are more inclined to head knowledge while others more closely follow the heart. 
Doubting can be good; God does not want you to simply follow Him because your Mom did and so should you.  But it also cannot be something you hide behind.  

At some point, there will be questions still unanswered, issues in our broken world that you cannot fix, and you will be left with the simple choice to believe or not believe.  And when that moment comes, we can only ask the question Do I believe that God loves me?

At the end it is, as Brené Brown calls it (see what I did there?), fear of connection.  Or, fear of disconnection.  Ultimately we come to a fork in the road where we have to realize God does love us, despite what we have done or not done, and that can be and is enough.

And then we realize the most beautiful thing of all: we are enough because He loves us.