You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
We have been exploring a series of interrelated practices that I call the Ripening Practices.
I use the word ripening because I do not believe we are often in a static state. In any given moment, we are moving toward ripeness or away from it. The Aramaic roots associated with what we translate as good carry a sense of ripeness—of being ready and mature—while what we translate as evil can carry a sense of unripeness.
Aramaic was the language of Jesus, and studying it has helped me listen to his teachings with fresh ears.
So far, we have considered three practices: ripening view, ripening intention, and ripening action. Today, we turn to a fourth:
Ripening Enoughness
Ripening enoughness is the practice of recognizing that I am enough just as I am.
I do not have to earn my enoughness. I do not have to accomplish a particular set of tasks, meet someone else’s expectations, or become a different person before I can be enough.
And yet, if I am honest, this is one of the ripening practices with which I struggle most.
There is a part of me that still wonders: Am I really enough?
Filling Our Own Shoes
I am now a year into a new pastoral appointment. The person who served before me was there for twenty-five years. He did good work, knew the congregation well, and was deeply beloved.
When you follow someone like that, it is easy to wonder whether you will be enough.
I knew I would never be able to fill my predecessor’s shoes. We have known one another for more than thirty years, and I knew that his gifts were his own. But I eventually realized that filling his shoes was never my calling.
My calling was—and is—to fill my own.
Whenever we enter a position once held by someone else, our work is not to duplicate that person. We are invited to bring our own presence, experience, gifts, limitations, and ways of loving.
The question is not whether I can become the person who came before me. The question is whether I can be fully and authentically myself in the place where I have been called to serve.
I am learning that the “I am” I bring into a moment matters more than the “I do.”
There are many things I know how to do as a pastor. I do not do all of them in the same way as my predecessor, and I may not do some of them as well. But enoughness does not come from matching someone else’s abilities or meeting expectations that originate outside of me.
Enoughness begins within.
When “Not Enough” Appears in the Work
This is actually the second time I recorded the podcast episode on which this post is based.
After recording the first version, I listened to it, transcribed it, and read through it. A few parts did not feel as transparent or authentic as I wanted them to be, so I decided to record it again.
I have to smile at the irony.
While talking about enoughness, I concluded that the first recording was not quite enough.
But perhaps choosing to record it again was not a denial of my enoughness. Perhaps it was simply an honest recognition that I had more I wanted to say. Most weeks, the first recording is the one you hear—not because I am rushing, but because I am satisfied that what I have offered is enough.
That distinction matters.
Enoughness does not mean we never revise, grow, try again, or do something differently. It means our fundamental worth is not determined by the outcome.
The Gift You Already Are
How do you feel about yourself?
Do you believe you are enough just as you are?
The Infinitely Precious Podcast—and the work surrounding it—is rooted in a simple affirmation:
You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
The phrase already are matters.
You do not have to become a gift. You already are one.
In this moment, you cannot be more than who you are. You can become distracted and struggle to bring your whole self into the moment, but when you arrive with as much presence and openness as you can, who you are is enough.
This is also where the Ripening Practices begin to strengthen one another.
A ripening view helps me see that I am part of something much larger than myself while remaining a unique and precious part of the whole.
A ripening intention helps me enter the present moment intending to be fully here, releasing what distracts me.
A ripening action helps me notice the small kindnesses and simple acts that reinforce our connection with one another.
And ripening enoughness reminds me that I do not have to do everything. I am invited to bring who I am and do what can faithfully be done in this moment.
When There Does Not Seem to Be Enough of Us
The past few years have brought many transitions.
I moved from a place where I had served for thirty-three years into a community filled with people I did not yet know. My father became ill and died. We moved. My wife’s mother also became ill and died. At the same time, I have been trying to care for my mother from a distance.
When I look at everything on my list for a given day, I sometimes wonder whether I am enough for it all—whether there is enough of me to meet every need.
Ripening enoughness does not promise that I will complete everything.
It invites me to approach the day with the intention to do what can be done, to be attentive to the actions available to me, and to trust that my faithful presence will be enough.
Again, it is not ultimately about the I do.
It is about the I am.
The Divine continues to remind me that I am enough because I am who I was made to be.
Whose Voice Says You Are Not Enough?
Perhaps enoughness is also a tender, growing edge in your life.
Is there an area in which you feel that you are not accomplished enough, good enough, fast enough, successful enough, or helpful enough?
Perhaps you have even received the message that you are somehow too much—too emotional, too outspoken, too sensitive, or simply too fully yourself.
Where do those voices come from?
Some may be voices you first heard in childhood. Someone suggested that you were not enough, and because you did not yet have the defenses or perspective to challenge that message, you let it in. Ten, twenty, or forty years later, you may still hear it shaping the way you see yourself.
Can you begin to recognize that voice?
Can you question its authority?
Can you slowly loosen your hold on the message it has carried?
Self-talk that continually describes us as lesser does not move us toward ripeness. It moves us in the opposite direction.
Ripening enoughness asks us to notice that movement and gently choose another way.
A Practice for the Coming Week
Take a little time this week to sit with these questions:
- Where in my life do I feel that I am not enough?
- Whose voice first taught me to feel this way?
- What expectations am I using to measure my worth?
- What might change if I trusted that being myself is enough?
- How can I speak to myself with greater truth, tenderness, and love?
You were made to be you.
You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
You are enough.
So am I.
May we continue ripening into that truth together.
Infinitely Precious 