Feeling inadequate leads people to behave insincerely in order to be – or at least present as – adequate; pad resumes, plastic surgery, bigger muscles, expensive cars, fashionable clothes and sizable homes. In our attempt to be adequate we may also find ourselves being critical and disparaging others in order to appear adequate. Some people live their entire lives never feeling as if their real self is enough.
When we don’t believe our true selves are adequate, we tend to create a facade for others. In a previous post I said we have become a society of pretenders. Why? People don’t feel adequate, and living an authentic life may lead to being shunned by the very society that is pretending. Trying to prove that we are enough (or adequate) is elusive. In our materialistic world, there is a race to be enough – good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, successful enough – sometimes to excess.
The beauty of a genuine relationship with God is that adequacy is not needed or even considered. There are several examples in scripture, and in fact at no time did God decide not to use someone because they were inadequate.
Moses certainly felt inadequate. “Please, Lord, send someone else – anyone you want!” (Exodus 4:13)
As did Gideon. “… “Forgive me, my Lord, but with what am I to save Israel? Why, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I’m the youngest person in my father’s house!”” (Judges 6:15)
David also felt inadequate. “Then David went in, sat before Adonai and said, “Who am I, Adonai Elohim; and what is my family, that has caused you to bring me this far?”” (II Samuel 7:18)
The disciples of Christ were also thought to be inadequate, at least according to religious leaders at the time. “Has any of the authorities trusted him? Or any of the Pharisees? No! True, these ‘am-ha’aretz [unlearned people] do, but they know nothing about the Torah, they are under a curse!”” (John 7:48-49)
God is God and no one is required to be adequate in his sight. “…I tell you that God can raise up for Abraham sons from these stones!” (Matthew 3:9)
God doesn’t use his power to make us adequate. Instead, he gives us his Spirit to work in and through us forever. “If you love me, you will keep my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever.” (John 14:15-16) That’s right, forever! This means that from now on while on this earth and for all eternity we don’t have to figure things out for ourselves. We are only required to trust and rely on the very Spirit of God to guide us.
With God we don’t have to hide our inadequacies, he already knows all about us. We have nothing to prove and no reason to present otherwise. If we continue to try and be enough for God, or anyone else, it hinders our ability to trust; we don’t believe our real selves would be acceptable.
Inadequacy is the enemy because it is the driving force behind attempts to appear successful, beautiful, interesting, smart, funny…(the list goes on). “Next I realized that all effort and achievement stem from one person’s envy of another. This too is futility and feeding on wind.” (Ecclesiastes 4:4) With God we never need to be adequate in ourselves. He knows we are inadequate and he’s okay with that. Embrace yourself – inadequacies included – and allow God, through his Holy Spirit, to perform his work in and through a very flawed you.
*All scripture is from the Complete Jewish Bible. Some names in the Complete Jewish Bible have been translated to English.