Already enough

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Professor Alison Jack of Edinburgh University's School of Divinity.
Script: Good morning. The gym my husband and I go to is a busy place. Situated in the heart of a campus university, it caters for all ages and abilities, from elite athletes to those who enjoy an occasional swim and a gentle yoga class. I guess we fall somewhere in the middle, having become addicted to Spin classes. That’s stationary bikes in a darkened room, with flashing lights and loud music pumping out the beat. We climb imaginary hills and we race down them, following the instructions of a leader on the bike in front of us. It’s hot and furious and great once it’s finished.

I was leaving a class when a young woman walked past me. There was a message on her tee shirt which I caught a glance of, and it said ‘You are enough’. On one level it told me that in the context of the gym I had a right to be there, to exercise with everyone else, whatever my level of fitness at that moment. But it struck me at a more existential level too. I felt addressed, convicted, we might say in more religious contexts, not of my sin, but of my worth, as I was. In a place where striving to be better is something of a given, to be told ‘you are enough’, as you are, sufficient and complete, is startling.

The young woman’s decision to put on that tee shirt that day was a very particular sort of proclamation of a message. If it had said ‘I am enough’, the effect, at least on me, would have been very different. But while ‘You are enough’ on a tee shirt is the opposite of the strident preaching you still hear sometimes on street corners, or in much raucous political debate, it spoke to me, and I remember the moment still, weeks later.

Living God, may those who need to know that they are enough today hear it whispered loud and clear. You are enough. We are enough. Thanks be to God.