Inadequacy

I want to give you a gift. It is an important gift, maybe the most important gift you will receive this week. I give you the gift of inadequacy.

You are inadequate. Recognize it. Embrace it. It is the kind of truth that can set you free from the drudgery of a “works” mentality. None of us are adequate – and yet, God accepts us, loves us, works in us and through us despite all of our brokenness and dysfunction. He is more than adequate.

As my morning devotion reminded me, we should all take a moment to laugh at ourselves today. “Laughter is the purest form of our response to God’s acceptance of us. For when I laugh at myself I accept myself and when I laugh at other people in genuine mirth I accept them. Self-acceptance in laughter is the very opposite of self-satisfaction or pride. For in laughter I accept myself not because I’m some sort of super-person, but precisely because I’m not. There is nothing funny about a super-person. There is everything funny about a man who thinks he is. In laughing at my own claims to importance or regard I receive myself in a sort of loving forgiveness, which is an echo of God’s forgiveness of me.” ~ From Tensions by H. A. Williams

Embrace your inadequacy, laugh at yourself and marvel at God’s love for us all!