I love the movie Cool Running about the Jamaican bobsled team. Great movie for all the right and wrong reasons! But one of my favorite movie quotes comes from this movie. The coach is talking to the team captain before the “big day”. Speaking about the gold medal, he says “if you are not enough without it, you will never be enough with it.”

I believe that this statement can be applied to absolutely everything in life – with one exception. Keep reading to find that out.

People today put so much emphasis on stuff; on identity – especially here in the USA. They want money, reputation, relationship, fame, power, the biggest, the brightest, the best, to be the most important, to win the most, or to have the most. People wrap their identity into something and believe they will be happier, at peace, content when they capture that golden idol dangling in front of them.

I spent years doing exactly the same. For me, relationships were the drug of choice. If I could just have the perfect someone love me – then I would be complete. I would be happy. Because this was my goal, my sure road to a perfect life, I was willing to sacrifice a lot of me for that quest. Things I can never undo, never get back, never totally forget. And amazingly with all that sacrifice, I still never had what I was certain would complete me. I never felt happy or complete. Actually, I usually ended up hurt, more empty and feeling guilty and ashamed because of the compromises to myself that I had made.

See, the problem is, we all have a space that needs to be filled and so many of us try our whole life to find the “stuff” that will fill that space. Or we self-medicate ourselves to try and forget that the emptiness we feel exists. But that stuff will never fill us, and no amount of self-medication will keep us from knowing the emptiness is there. We will never be enough with all the stuff we think will fulfill us.

This is actually a story of hope… probably didn’t feel like it yet. That thing we try to fill – that hole – it is the space that is meant for God in our life.

The way to be enough without all the stuff is to know the God who loves us more than anyone could ever imagine. To know what our Father, our Creator, says about us; reading His word, talking with Him constantly, walking daily held in His pure and perfect love. Walking in His grace. With that filling the being of who we are – all that other stuff just becomes a gift, not a need. It no longer owns us. It is no longer more important than our own self is. We no longer compromise what is right or what we feel in our heart. We no longer sell our souls for the gold medals – shiny trinkets that crumple in life.

Matthew 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred, do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Matthew 16:25-26 “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

And there it is; the one exception – God. God doesn’t care if we are enough. He knew us from the beginning and loved us before we had a chance to do right or wrong. To God – we are already compete, already everything He loves fully. He is the enough that we need in our life. The reality is, with God – we are already enough.

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 2:10 “and in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.”

So what are you chasing? What is your gold medal? What do you reach for everyday?

Reach for God. Let your world be filled with the love God has for you – the pure, perfect, amazing love of God. If you strive for that, if you walk daily with Him, you will find everything else enhances your life but does not define it. Everything else becomes a gift, but not an identity.