More than Adequate

ad·e·quate : ˈadikwit : adjective

1. barely satisfactory or acceptable in quality or quantity 

2. sufficient, enough, requisite 

I worked so hard on the paper. It was my first paper as a graduate student at Emory University. The topic was economics and ethics. I completed the paper a few days in advance. I proofread it two or three times. I made a few revisions. A week later I got the paper back. I was thinking I would get an “A” for sure. Maybe an “A-” if the professor was being picky or just wanted to flex his muscle a bit. The grade was a “B-” and one word was written in big red letters across the front page: adequate. The “B-” was disappointing and made me believe I was in for a long three years. The word “adequate” got to me. I still remember it fifteen years later. Just good enough. Barely acceptable. OK. Average.

Emory University - Where I turned in some adequate work

This weekend I am talking about inadequacy. Times in our life when we have been told we weren’t good enough. Times when we looked in the mirror and believed we weren’t acceptable. Adequate is tough enough for us to live with. Inadequacy can be devastating. 

• I remember not making a baseball team. Inadequate. 
• I remember not be admitted into Carleton College. Inadequate. 
• I remember not getting the job as Pastor at the University of Georgia Wesley Foundation. Inadequate. 
• I remember being told by the Bishop in Iowa that I didn’t have what it takes to plant a congregation. Inadequate. 
• I remember standing outside a hospital room going to meet with the family of a dying child and not having a clue what to say. Inadequate. 
• I remember driving into a church parking lot filled with hundreds of cars knowing that I was going to be speaking on God’s behalf to the drivers and passengers of these cars and I wasn’t overly prepared. Inadequate. 

You have similar stories. The names and places are different, but the inadequacy remains the same. A boss, a boyfriend, a coach, told you that you weren’t good enough. And you believed them or maybe even came to the conclusion on your own. 

And then I remember Gideon. Others didn’t think much of him. And he didn’t think much of himself. But how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. –Judges 6:15 God replied to Gideon: I am with you. –Judges 6:16 

Thankfully for Gideon and for us: it doesn’t matter what others think of you; it doesn’t matter what you think of you, it matters what God thinks of you and God believes in you. God has written a few words with big red letters to us: My grace is more than adequate for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. -2 Corinthians 9:12 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig