The ENOUGH

⁵ LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
⁸ I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful^b]">[b] one see decay.
¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

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I'm always trying to get my littlest to eat real food; she would be content to drink only milk. Maybe, many decades ago, my mom struggled to get me to eat my dinner too. But I doubt it. I like food. I like to grow food. I like to prepare food. I like the smell, and feel of food. I especially like to eat it.

If I am not paying attention it's easy for me to eat too much. Sometimes, I think it's because I don't actually pay attention when I eat. I'm trying to grab a bite between the many tasks and people who compete for my attention. I consume, but I forget to savor. I hardly taste. And in the end I'm left craving, for I never tasted, never savored. Forgot to chew -nearly.

All this to say - food metaphors work for me.

"Lord, you are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure....You will fill me with joy in your presence."

So is God my enough? Does he alone sustain? Even when finances unravel and health is precarious, is he enough for me? When depression leaves me empty can He fill? More. Have I found joy in His presence. When a dream dies is He the bigger, greater vision. Have I stopped to taste and see that the Lord is, indeed, good. I know craving. I know longing for more. Have I even tried to find satisfaction in Him?

This sounds poetic. Because it is. But the truth of it is hard.

Because it might just mean that when I pray for the bonus, and clean bill of health I've got it wrong. When I pray for the easy and convenient I might have missed the point entirely.

He is the ENOUGH.

Really?

When a mother loses a child? Crushing depression? Divorce that ruptures a child's security? And for every abandoned child who finds a home many thousands languish.

Is He ENOUGH then? Is joy possible even in the darkest? Even when it all falls apart?

Sure. Sure. This world is not as it should be? And we can pray, should pray, "Thy Kingdom Come". We long for that which we were created? And God does heal; he does make right even in the now.

But not always. Not always.

And then He is the ENOUGH, the JOY that spits in face of circumstance.