In Search of Paradise

To the degree you’re not living in paradise, you are insufficient.Jordan B. Peterson

You are being lied to. We are all lied to at an astonishing rate from the time we are young. We are told things that sound comforting and legitimate, but in reality these lies stunt our development and obfuscate our perception. One of the biggest lies told to people is that they are enough. “You’re perfect just the way you are,” or, “Just become the best version of yourself.” These sound kind, gentle, and encouraging, but they are hurting you. Although it might sound rude and insensitive for me to say, you are not enough. I am not enough. If paradise is the standard of sufficiency, then every human life is evidence against our self-sufficiency.

The fact that we are all wildly insufficient is ignored because it is not a soothing viewpoint. Although we hate it, we know deep down that we are lacking and will continue to lack. No matter how much we work on ourselves or how many self-help books we read, you and I will never be able to attain the status of being enough. If we were enough as individuals, why are we so drawn to community, friendship, romantic relationships, materialism, money, and status? It is because we are incomplete and broken. Those things can temporarily reduce the felt experience of insufficiency without addressing the fact of it. That is why the self-help versions keep circulating. They offer partial relief and call it resolution.

Misery runs rampant due to our blatant insufficiency. No amount of mental health days will change that. Nothing in this broken, evil world can fix our evil, broken selves. We are just a bunch of mixed-up kids, but there is hope. The hope is not that we will finally become enough. The hope is that we stop needing to. Jesus is enough. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. The very insufficiency that modern culture tries to soothe or deny is the place where His grace meets us and proves sufficient. We remain incomplete on our own. In Him, we find paradise.