We Are Not Enough by Kim Reisman

In just a few days, Christ followers around the world will celebrate Pentecost, a remarkable day on the Church calendar, but one that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

Pentecost was a Jewish festival, so on the day we will soon observe, people from all over had gathered in Jerusalem. Before he left them, Jesus had instructed his followers to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, so that’s what they were doing when the day of Pentecost arrived – they were waiting for the Holy Spirit.

Think about that for a minute. Jesus put seeking the Holy Spirit at the top of the list of things his followers needed to do. That should tell us something. Clearly, we can’t be all that God intends us to be on our own. More importantly, we can’t be all that God intends us to be in the world on our own. To be all that God intends us to be, we need the Holy Spirit.

What a dramatic contrast from the messages our world sends. In so many of our cultures, particularly in the West, there is a relentless focus on the self that tells us you are enough. You don’t need anything else.

You are enough. It’s such a pervasive thought that all you need to do is google the phrase and you’ll get countless memes perfectly designed for posting on social media. I’ve even texted things like this to my kids when I know they’re having a difficult or stressful time in their lives.

You are enough. You are so enough it is unbelievable how enough you are. It sounds great, doesn’t it?

And from a Christian perspective it’s true: we are enough. God’s love for us is unconditional. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t deserve it. We are enough, and God loves us exactly as we are. Of course, God doesn’t leave us that way, but that’s a post for another day.

Sadly, that’s not the world’s understanding of “you are enough.” The world would have us believe that everything we need can be found within ourselves. We simply need to “trust our feelings.” There is also no greater truth than our own truth, nothing greater to believe in outside of ourselves – a little self-love and self-care and we’ll be fine.

And yet, we’re not fine. We’re in a thrashing time, a time marked by our breathtaking ability to do violence to each other. We hurt those we love with our words and our deeds. We let others down by the things we do and the things we don’t do. Our lives are marked by anxiety and depression, broken relationships, and damaged hearts.

We are not enough. Everything we need cannot be found within our own selves. We need to discover something bigger, something greater, beyond our own selves.

That is why it is so important that we not overlook Pentecost. Because from the day God poured out his Holy Spirit on that ragtag group of frightened followers, right up to this very moment, God has been working tenderly with each one of us. Meeting us right where we are. Even in the midst of all of this mess.

About 10 years after I graduated from college, a Jewish friend of mine was in the hospital recovering from an illness. He ran out of things to read so he randomly opened up a Bible to the Gospel of John. He had never seen a Christian Bible before and when he was growing up, talking about Jesus had been forbidden in his family. But by the time he finished the book of John, the Holy Spirit had moved him so deeply he accepted Christ right then and there – all alone, in the quiet of his hospital room.

I have other friends who have had much different experiences of the Holy Spirit. Theirs have been powerful, public experiences, in the context of worship or in response to preaching. Like that first Pentecost.

I’ve also spoken with people whose experiences were different from either of those. They have been visited by Jesus in dreams and visions and have come to recognize Jesus for who he truly is only through conversation with patient friends.

How amazing it is that God’s Holy Spirit reaches out to us in just the way we need! Calling to us in exactly the way we will hear it best.

That’s the way it was at that first Pentecost. Each heard in their own language.

By now the Asbury Outpouring is old news. Some of us even talk about it in the same way we talk about that first Pentecost – as an event in the past. But what a wonder that movement of the Spirit was! Suzanne Nicholson called it a sweet gentleness.

How awesome, that in an age of anxiety and violence, depression and deep woundedness, God’s Holy Spirit is reaching out to us with tenderness and peace.

As we approach Pentecost, we need to remember that we follow a God who opened his arms to us, while we were yet sinners. While we were still broken, while we were still thrashing, while we were still depressed and anxious and trying to convince ourselves we were enough – God was there.

That’s tremendous news. God loves us first. Before we get our acts together, before we fully understand how he wants us to live, before anything and everything else, God loves us first. That’s one of the deepest convictions we hold as people who follow Jesus in the company of the Wesleys. And it’s one of the most important messages our hurting world needs to receive. God loves us first. Before we are even aware, the Holy Spirit is moving toward us in love. 

Pentecost reminds us that Jesus placed seeking the Holy Spirit at the top of the list of things his followers need to do. Not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the world. So that people can experience the power of God’s Holy Spirit, lovingly moving in their lives. So they can understand that yes, they are enough. God already loves them more than they could ever imagine. And also, no – they aren’t enough. Everything they need cannot be found within themselves. They aren’t enough to carry all their burdens alone, to shoulder all their anxiety and bitterness and anger by themselves. But there is One who is greater than they are, greater than all of us. The One who knows the weight of our burdens and the depth of our pain. The One whose Spirit was unleashed at Pentecost and continues to move with sweet gentleness, offering the healing and mercy and grace our world so badly needs.