{"id":1070,"date":"2025-07-22T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2025-07-16T17:44:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T23:44:04","slug":"am-i-enough-how-connection-and-commission-answer-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/am-i-enough-how-connection-and-commission-answer-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Enough? How Connection and Commission Answer the Question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are we enough? How do we know?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I know that when I\u2019m eating pizza, I\u2019m not aware of when I\u2019ve had enough. I just keep eating and eating. But usually around 2AM, my body tells me I had too much. Really inconvenient time to tell me this. So why do I eat to the point of hurting and not even realize it? Because I haven\u2019t defined<\/em> the number of slices I can have without hurting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a counselor, when I talk to people about their issues, what I\u2019ve found is their problems are typically not defined. We sit. I listen. They talk about the issues they encounter and how it makes them feel. But after a while, I realize they still haven\u2019t identified a problem. Just the results of the problem. That\u2019s usually my job. To help them identify the problem. They often don\u2019t seem to be able to get there on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks like this:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

(C)lient: I just can\u2019t seem to get out of bed. I\u2019m sad about everything. I really don\u2019t want to do anything. My girlfriend broke up with me and I haven\u2019t desired to do anything since.<\/p>

(M)e: Tell me more about your everyday life<\/p>

C: Normal stuff, play video games with my friends. Hang out at the frisbee golf park. My friends all seem happy. I can\u2019t imagine what that\u2019s like. Being happy.<\/p>

M: Do you all work together?<\/p>

C: Oh I don\u2019t work. Can\u2019t seem to get the desire to do anything, including work.<\/p>

M: How do you pay bills?<\/p>

C: I barely have any. Live with mom.<\/p>

M: I think we\u2019ve identified the source of your depression. You\u2019re not productive. You were designed to be productive. When you\u2019re not, chemicals that you need are being withheld.<\/p>

C: Wow! I didn\u2019t know that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Not kidding. This is about how many of them go. They just didn\u2019t know. They\u2019ve never been told. They didn\u2019t know how to identify the problem. Once the issue is identified, they move forward and life changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014But what about you? Do you find yourself feeling like you\u2019re not enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My Wife\u2019s Story<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I have been given permission by my wife to share this. She grew up in a home that was unpredictable on a good day. Parents were divorced. Father was an angry alcoholic. Mother worked around the clock to keep the lights on. Often during her childhood, my wife wasn\u2019t sure where the next meal was coming from, if they were getting evicted this week, or if something more sinister would completely rattle their routine. She was told by her father on a very regular basis, \u201cYou\u2019ll never be anything. You\u2019re too stupid.\u201d She turned to drugs, pills, alcohol, and friends to numb this painful rhetoric coming from her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward. She\u2019s currently a mother (or bonus mother) to 8 kids, not including those that consider her their mentor, she runs 3 businesses, she\u2019s been celebrated for her achievements by various local news outlets, companies she\u2019s helped, and county governments that recognize her contributions to the overall well-being of teenagers. Her children are all successful. She is very loved. In fact, the only reason I have friends is because people like her so much. So they put up with me. But recently she felt like she still wasn\u2019t enough. I quickly recognized that this was because a daughter naturally longs for her father\u2019s acceptance. No one else will substitute. Her father was never going to be that guy. This got me thinking. What is enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objective Standards of Enough<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As I talked through it, I found that there should be a definitive, objective standard for what is considered enough in life. As a Christian, I found it. Connection and Commission<\/em><\/strong>. I have two tasks in life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Connection<\/em>: Have a relationship with God, through Jesus and<\/li>
  2. Commission<\/em>: Take as many people to heaven with me as possible- mostly through the way I live.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I firmly believe that if I am accomplishing these two goals, or aiming at them, I. Am Enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s how I know. The guy on the middle cross said so. The thief basically says, \u201cDon\u2019t forget me when you leave.\u201d Jesus tells him they will be together. God says that when we accept Him, we become heirs to His blessings. Not through what we<\/em> did. But through what He<\/em> did. And that\u2019s the key. We<\/em> are enough, because He<\/em> is enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We Are Enough Because He is Enough<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    If we were left to our own accomplishments, we would be doomed. Through every move forward toward the ineffable aim, the indescribable telos, our dopaminergic system gives us a pat on the back to keep going. And with every step forward, we allow God to remove one more thing about us that doesn\u2019t<\/em> look like Him, allowing room for something to become a part of us that does<\/em> look like Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As I spit out all of these truth-bombs, my wife stated that she still didn\u2019t feel like she was enough. But she felt better. That\u2019s because she now heard undeniable truth but had yet to identify and define exactly what would make her feel like she was enough. Now that she knows she is enough because God (in her) is enough, she can identify what, on earth, will make her feel like she is now enough. It must be reasonable and attainable. But this will cure the empty feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you are not yet at a place where you have identified what would be enough, sit down and figure it out. Because you can\u2019t change what you don\u2019t define. Now, earlier, I identified pizza as the best meal on earth, and right now I can smell it in the kitchen. So I\u2019m out. Hopefully I won\u2019t eat too much this time! Who am I kidding? Of course I\u2019m going to eat too much. Because I haven\u2019t defined what too much<\/em> is yet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Stay Classy GP!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Grainger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Are we enough? How do we know? I know that when I\u2019m eating pizza, I\u2019m not aware of when I\u2019ve had enough. I just keep eating and eating. But usually around 2AM, my body tells me I had too much. Really inconvenient time to tell me this. So why do I eat to the point … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Am I Enough? How Connection and Commission Answer the Question”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tidbitsofaudacity.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}