Today I have been thinking about insecurities. We all have them in some form…we aren’t tall enough, or short enough, or rich enough, or successful enough…our nose is a weird shape, or our left pinky has this slight bend in the middle that makes it look like it is broken….This is the natural ebb and flow to being human in a world full of..other humans. Most of these insecurities are natural and fairly harmless.
But then there are the deeper ones. These are holdovers from breakups, divorce, unsavory childhoods, parents who loved too much, or loved too little, backstabbing friends, failure, loss and just general knockabouts in life. These are the ones that maim us.

They leave nasty wounds that have burned neural pathways, defining the way we respond to life and others. They say we aren’t good enough, or smart enough, or pretty enough, or skinny enough, or healthy enough, or sophisticated enough, or talented enough. We aren’t outgoing enough, or funny enough,  or we don’t know when to shut our mouths…Somehow, we just don’t measure up.

Many of us accept these limitations as a caveat of earthbound living. We are riddled with pain or some other life handicap, and we can do no better. After all, we are only human. Either that, or we believe these lies so truly about ourselves that we make them true. So we are so locked into our insecurities that we can never truly live up to our God given design and purpose. And so insecurity becomes this handy crutch that keeps us fallible and earthbound, in a manner of speaking.

But here is what I have learned through my experiment in community living. Everyone is prone to irrational insecurities. Everyone wonders whether people will like them, love them or push them away. Everyone is concerned about their image, about their joke falling flat, or saying something dumb. From time to time everyone wanders away from a conversation replaying it, and questioning themselves. Everyone has insecurities. This does not make us special, overly pained or handicapped. It makes us truly human and in need of grace.

And when we truly understand this, we realize that we are not special in our insecurity. We do not have the special, “but I’m just not _______  enough,” card that exempts us from living up to what God has designed for us to be, and destined for us to achieve. Even the most successful, popular people you know, will reveal deep insecurities when the moment is right.

And this realization is completely empowering.  The things that have been holding you back because you somehow thought you weren’t “good enough,” are all lies. You are good enough.  You are attractive enough. You are smart enough. You are outgoing enough. You are enough because God said you are.

So, what of the other side? What about when we legitimately aren’t enough? There are valid instances when we truly aren’t who and what we need to be in a given situation. This is my answer–when you walk confidently in who you are, you will become who you need to be. And God gives us grace for where he has placed us. And God’s grace is enough.