You're Not Enough (and That's Ok): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love

by Allie Beth Stuckey

The new self sees these expectations as good boundaries set by the Father who loves her, not inhibitions hindering her “true self,” because her “true self” is the person God calls her to be, empowered to love him and others and to pursue holiness. This means mistakes and failures and sins do exist. They’re not just experiences to learn from, and they’re not other people’s fault or harmless habits typical of our personality type; they’re choices to regret. Not everything taboo needs to be “destigmatized” or “normalized.” For the Christian, some behavior has a stigma and is abnormal because God says it should be. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul rejoices in a “godly grief” over sin that leads to repentance. Without sadness over sins, we won’t be moved to turn from them and realign ourselves with God’s will. If God cares about sin so much that he sent his son to die to pay the price for it, we should care about it too.

It makes us feel good to imagine that we’re perfect and enough. But, as we’ve established, we’re neither one. And that’s okay because God made us needy for his strength and salvation.

If he was unwilling to spare even his own Son for the sake of our salvation, isn’t he trustworthy to meet the rest of our needs as well?