Welcome to this conversation
Enough - Episode 1: Enough Living. There is and always will be a hole in you that be filled. To a point, having enough is part of survival. Beyond that, enough is what we choose it to be, or let it be. There is a way to live in which you never have enough, and there is a way to live in which you always have enough even when you don’t have enough.Greg Meyer and other Fabric friends will help you get ready for our six week journey of Enough Living.
Episode 1: Enough Living
What is Enough?
“Is it what you want? What you need? What you have? Is it something everyone should have? Or something no one can ever have? Do you have enough? Enough money, stuff, comfort, happiness, success, time, certainty? What is enough for you?”
Reeve Hutchinson shared this riddle with us. Knowing the answer to it may be part of the secret of enough. He wants you to promise not to look up the answer on the internet.
What does one love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife?
What do the poor have, the rich require,
and all contented souls desire?
What does the miser spend, and the spendthrift save,
And all people carry to the grave?
You know these two sides of Enough already.
The positive side of Enough: The sense of having and being enough - just as you are. Content. Satisfied.
The negative side of Enough: The insatiable appetite, the sense that there is no such thing as enough, there is only more.
Your ENOUGH wordlist: Take a few minutes to come up with your own list of synonyms, antonyms and words you associate with the quandary of ‘enough.’ Keep it around and add to it over the next few days as you discover all the other places ‘enough’ creeps into your life.
Enough is a trap! You can never have enough. Your appetite is like a bucket with a slow leak. You can fill it up and think you have all you will ever need, and then the next day you want more.
“Death and Destruction [Sheol and Abaddon] never have enough.
And neither does the human eye.” Proverbs 27.20
Something to consider:
“Your inability to understand what enough is for you will push you to DO and BE and HAVE things that don’t matter. And it will do it at the expense of things that do.”
Enough can also be contentment.
Contentment is perceiving what you have as enough.
I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through the one who strengthens me. Philippians 4.11-13
Contentment is also able to perceive what you have that is more than enough, and perhaps, what to do with it.
Listen to Peyton Meyer’s wrestling with what enough is for her, and what to do with her more-than-enough.
Something to Consider: Part of what makes Enough so hard are the paradoxes within it.
On the one hand: Somewhere deep inside us, we should be able to discover that we have and are enough no matter how dire, unjust, or tragic our circumstances. On the other hand: It is also true that in terms of the basics of life, many people truly do not have enough. How do you reconcile these?
On the one hand: Truly sensing that we are and have enough should make us not need to hold on to or be attached to anything. On the other hand: It is also true that this world of beauty, wonder and love are meant for us to drink deeply from and not be detached. How do you reconcile these?
Hear Jeanette Mayo’s reflection on the second paradox based on this quote from Toni Morrison.
“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”
Something to Consider: You will never weave life with your true self, with others and with God while you are chasing Enough.
The BIG Question this week: What is Enough?
What does it look like in your life?
What are instances in which you experience the settled, contented side of knowing that you have, right now, exactly what you want and need?
What are examples of when you experience the anxious, grasping, wanting of what you don’t have, blinding you to what you do have?
More Resources…
Group Discussion Guide: Click HERE.
It is human scale connections that will help us navigate.