Everything.

I wasn’t quite sure on how to start this post off. I don’t have a beginning, middle, or end to it yet. All I know is the topic that’s been on my heart the past couple of days.

My God is enough for me.

Everything (about this topic pertaining to my life) kind of hit me all at once the other week as I was driving home from a mini youth leader conference...

It so simple to think that God is enough, but to live it is sometimes not as simple.
So often my heart thinks it wants things. Things that are not God. Just things.

Things.

While my head knows God is enough, sometimes my heart forgets. I want to run to old habits when things get tough, or stressful, or when I feel alone, or misunderstood. Sometimes I want to go to things of this world. I think a lot of us may feel this way sometimes or maybe all the time. We may try to rid ourselves of ‘negative’ emotions by something like shopping or drinking. Something to push our feelings aside for what may even be a moment.

With that being said (at this mini youth conference I went to) I attended a class that turned out to be awesome. One of the things the speaker asked us was to come up with one spiritual discipline we could have for the rest of our lives. I said memorization, mainly because I forget everything. I’d love to be able to memorize scripture and enjoy doing it. But it’s something that I really do not enjoy doing alone! Anyway...at the end of the class, the speaker told us that if he could suggest one specific discipline that everyone needs to have it’d be to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday, even multiple times throughout the day.

Then it hit me.

I had been so distant from God the past couple weeks, being preoccupied with papers, projects, stresses, and just everyday life stuff. While I was still playing worship on Sundays, leading youth small groups on Wednesdays, and going to college bible study, I wasn’t taking any time to spend with just God. I may have been honoring God with some of my time, but I was not giving Him His time. Now looking back on the past couple of weeks, I can see it clearly.

I can see how God kept showing me His love, and I didn’t soak it in. I may have given a quick ‘thanks’ and moved on, but that was it. I’ve been so absorbed with my own life, that I forgot about His.

I forgot about the gospel.

I forgot that I don’t have to prove myself to anyone, or be prefect for anyone, which I really struggle with on any average day. I was so caught up in trying to prove myself to my professors and stressing about my projects not being good enough. Then on top of that I was in a few different situations that left me feeling like a nut case! But in those situations I saw God was moving tremendously. And through that I can now see He was calling myself to Him.

I was reading a book before the end of my last quarter of college called “Jesus + Nothing = Everything.” But when life started getting busy, I stopped reading it. But it was basically about preaching yourself the gospel everyday and what that looks like.

(Sometimes I feel like God just laughs at me when I figure all this out...I’m pretty sure He does actually.)

So anyway...

All this hit me the most when I was driving home from the mini convention and a song by Barlow Girl was on. (Yeah...I was bored with my cd’s and decided to check out what was in my 10 disc cd changer in my trunk from 2,000 years ago. That’s what’s up!) The chorus of the song that caught my attention goes like this:

“My God’s enough for me.
This world has nothing I need.
In this whole life I’ve seen my God’s enough for me.”

Then a line in the second verse says:
“Cover my eyes now, so that my heart can finally see
that in the end only You mean anything.”

As I was listening, I couldn’t think of anything more true than my God being enough for me. I was trying to be something by doing as well as I could on my projects, while in the end, they were still nothing like what I’d hoped they would be. And now school is over, and the projects mean nothing to me anymore. I’ll never see my professors again (hopefully), and they’ve probably forgotten about me already. So all the time I spent stressing and worrying instead of focusing on or honoring God was pointless.

Jesus + Success = Everything
Jesus +  A+ = Everything
Jesus + Degree = Everything


Fill in the blank for yourself and be honest.

Jesus + __________ = Everything



My prayer recently is that I can remember that Jesus plus nothing equals everything, and that I can preach the gospel to myself daily for the rest of my life!


(Remember how I told you I don't have an ending for this post. Well...I still don't so I'm just going to end with this. Pretend it flows.)

The more I read these words, the more I think of how true they are in my life.

“My God’s enough for me. This world has nothing I need.”



God is all I need and still he gives me the things I think I need or long for most.

Why does He do that!?!

I don't know.

All I know is I am undeserving, yet He freely gives, and I am so thankful.