When someone expresses their love for me, I wonder, what did I do to deserve it? What have I become that evokes the appreciation of others? Then, unconsciously, I set out to do more of that, be more of that. But this time, when I held this beautiful gift of being loved, I noticed those thoughts. 

Serendipitously, I heard myself ask a directee* a few days later, “What would it be like to hear Jesus say to you: ‘You are enough. You’ve done enough.’?”Like me, they constantly felt they needed to do more, be more. 

I practice EFT tapping infrequently. But one time, when I was doing it along with Nick Ortner, he named common failures, “I’m going to procrastinate. I’m going to eat things I didn’t want to eat. I’m going to skip exercise … ” and then he added, “and I’m enough.” Tears came to my eyes as I tapped along. And right on cue, as I wrote this, I teared up again.

I want to go wherever God sends me. I want to do the good work that is mine to do. God wants that too. And God is also clearly telling me I don’t need to do more. I don’t need to do more to be enough or to be loved.

Years ago, I wrote about a friend whose financial advisor told her that she and her husband had saved enough money for retirement. Now they needed to spend it. Fred and I are in that place now. It feels weird to think I don’t need to make any more money.

It feels weird to think I don’t need to do more. It’s as if God has kept an account of my life and is saying to me, “Esther, you filled your quota long ago. You’ve done enough. You are enough.”

There’s a part of me that doesn’t fully believe that yet. That’s okay. Deep work takes time, and Love never gives up.

Long ago the Lord said to Israel:
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
— Jeremiah 31:3 (NLT)

Love Mischief for the World

“So many good-hearted people I know are exhausted.” Wayne Muller, a minister and community advocate, writes in A Life of Being, Doing and Having Enough. “However sweet or nourishing the fruits of their work may be for themselves or others, nothing they do ever feels like enough.” Muller explains, “A life of enough is born in every moment — in the way we listen, the way we respond to the world, the way we see what is and tell the truth of who we are. Every single choice, every single moment, every change of course can bring us closer to a life of peace, contentment, authenticity, and easy sufficiency, a life of being, having, and doing enough.”

Mark Nepo, author of The Book of Awakening, says, “Feel the fact that you are enough.”

Indeed, let that fact soak in.

Scripture is full of instructions about doing and becoming. That is because our creator God is lovingly transforming us and the world to be more Christlike. Love invites us to participate in that transformation–not because God despises us as we are (God does not!), but because God sees us and loves us. We are always enough, AND God always gives us more love, and more freedom to be our true/Christlike selves.

What love mischief are you and God doing for the world?
Let me know and I will include it in an upcoming post.

*The directee gave me their permission to share this.

Credits and References:
“Heart” by 越/Yue 胡/HU. Used with permission. 
“Love” by Joe Green. Used with permission.

© Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim, 2023.
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without permission from Esther Hizsa is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used provided there is a link to the original content and credit is given as follows: © Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim 2013-2023.  http://www.estherhizsa.com