How much is enough?

My children did not like peas.  At all.  So every meal that included peas also included a conversation about how many peas had to be eaten.  How many were 'enough'? We finally settled on a system where they ate one pea for each year of their age.

We only ask the question How much is enough? when there is some goal we are trying to achieve (like being excused from the dinner table).  How much is enough laundry detergent for this load of laundry?  How much money do I need to spend on my spouse's birthday present?  How many answers do I have to get right in order to pass this test?  How much money do I have to save for retirement?

People of faith often ask this same question.  How much must I do?  Am I doing enough?  Am I giving enough? (OK, this question isn't asked as often as the others)  Am I compassionate enough?  Am I faithful enough?  How much is enough?

I can only ask "Enough for what?"  Enough for God to love you?  Enough for Jesus to forgive you?  Enough for you to experience the fullness of life that God in Jesus promises us?  Enough to "win the prize?"

Sometimes the question arises out of a searching for a deeper relationship with God, a richer spiritual life, and a sincere effort to be faithful, We look around us and there are too many who are hungry, too many who are oppressed, too many who need healing and comfort.  We look at our own lives and see too many places where we have cut corners, we have been less than compassionate, turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.  We look at ourselves and know that when we stand before God, we have a lot that isn't in right order.

That is how it should be.  When we stand before God we should be aware that all is not well, not in our lives and certainly not in the world around us.  This is not accusation, this is fact.  In religious talk, we are truly broken people, sinners before the Creator God.  This is confession, and it can often lead us to the deeper connection with God that we desire.

However, it is good to remember this: we cannot do enough ever to make it all right.  We cannot fix ourselves nor can we fix the world.  The problem is bigger than we are.

No matter how much we do, we will never prove to God that we are worthy of God's mercy and love. We will not prove our 'goodness' by doing 'enough' ....no matter how much we run and run and run and work and work and work.  Our work does not obtain God's love.  God gives it freely because that is who God is.

The love of God is broader and deeper than we can ever imagine.  We receive God's mercy because that is who God is.  We receive God's mercy because we need God's mercy.  We are always beggars in this equation.  Always.  Always.

So the answer to the question:  How much is enough? is this:  all and none.  Jesus calls us to give all of us......because there is nothing else we have to offer to a God who loved us before time.

All and none:  the challenge of living a life of faith.