When is enough, enough?  When will we ever have enough?  These are question that each of us ask ourselves from time to time.  We all want to have a successful life, but there are so many areas in each of our lives making claims on our time and energy.  No matter how busy we are, we can always think of more things that we could be doing.
    If you are married, you need to invest time into that relationship and make it a priority.  Are you doing enough for your spouse, or are you cutting corners?  If you are a parent, or even a grandparent, you need to invest time in your children.  There are of course school activities and responsibilities that you need to keep on top of, but that is only the beginning.  There are sports, dance, cheerleading, scouts, music lessons, and so many good activities that children and grandchildren get involved in.  Are we doing enough to support them in those activities, while still giving them what they need to grow and thrive both physically and emotional?
    Many of us are also facing the need to invest time and priority in the other direction:  by supporting aging parents.  This comes with a built in “guilt factor” as we ask ourselves, “Am I doing enough for Mom and Dad as they become more elderly and need more assistance?”
    Then there is the sphere of finances.  Are you putting enough away to pay for the children’s college?  What about retirement?  Some may find themselves making more money then they expected, but wonder where is it all going?
    Let’s not forget about ourselves.  Are we eating right, getting enough exercise and sleep?  Are we being honest enough with our doctors about our health?
    Of course we cannot focus just on the physical world.  Am I praying enough?  Am I growing enough in my relationship with Jesus?  Is my faith strong enough?  Do I really believe?
    The specter of enough hangs over potentially every area of our lives, and then something unexpected happens and we’re dealing with it in unexpected ways too:  Do I get the car fixed, how much is that going to cost, is it worth it, do I believe the mechanic?  Do I get a new car, do I really want to spend the money, do I believe the salesman?
    We are going to be looking at the question of enough over the next five weeks in our new message series, “Important Enough.”  To begin our discussion, we are going to look at a passage from the Gospel of St. Mark.
    Over the next few weeks, we will have a steady diet from the Gospel of St. Mark so it would be a good idea to just read through the whole book. It is the shortest of the four Gospels.  If you read it for a few minutes a day you could probably work through the whole Gospel in the course of this series.
    In today’s gospel reading, St. Mark tells us that Jesus left the largely Jewish areas of Sidon and Tyre, and went to the district of the Decapolis, which was mostly of Greek/Roman culture.
    “And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him” (Mark 7:32).  Jesus’ reputation of being a miraculous healer had preceded him, the people asked him to lay his hands on one of their neighbors who was deaf and had a speech impediment.
    “He took him off by himself away from the crowd” (Mark 7:33).  Elsewhere Jesus performs healings in full public view. But here he takes the man off by himself. Why?  Jesus, who knows the unique needs of every single person, recognizes that this man has some special needs.
    “He put his finger into the man’s ears and spitting touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ – that is, ‘Be opened!’” (Mark 7:34).  Why these details and why so gritty?  Other times Jesus would simply speak and a person would be healed. He obviously doesn’t need to perform any kind of ritual in order to summon his power.  Why doesn’t Jesus simply tell this guy he’s going to heal him? Because the man couldn’t hear him, he was deaf.  He would not have any understanding of what Jesus is doing. But Jesus puts his finger in his ear, he spits on his finger and touches his tongue – all tactile things he could see and feel.  This is how he approaches each of us, in a very personal way.
    That can be a comforting thought for some people, but for other people it might make them uncomfortable.  Maybe we don’t want a personal God. Maybe we don’t believe in a personal God.  In some ways it is more comfortable to think of a God who is distant and detached.  We say, “I know I’ve got faults and failures, but they’re mine and I’m comfortable with them.”
    The Lord loves us enough to accept us for who we are, and where we’re at. But he loves us too much to let us stay there.
    “And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:35).  The healing is instantaneous and complete. The man’s life is changed forever.
    God speaks to us, really, all the time.  However, that communication is often muffled
or even drowned out all together by our crazy schedules, noisy world and fallen human nature.
    Jesus wants to get us away from the crowd to meet the deepest needs of our heart.  He wants to restore and heal our hearts.  He wants to lead us to a place of peace when it comes to this question of enough.  Like that deaf man in the story, we have got to be willing do our part.
Sometimes we’ve got to be willing to walk away from the crowd.
    We have some homework this week.  In what areas of your life, do you struggle the most with this question of enough? Faith, family, fitness, finances, your work, your school work, your car?  Take some time, a quiet time, over your morning coffee or daily commute to talk to God about it.
    Share with him where you struggle with enough and then listen for him to speak to you.  Ask God to open your ears so you can hear him.  If that doesn’t seem productive for you, listen to by reading from Scripture.  Start with the Gospel of Mark as we mentioned, or sign up for our daily devotional, “Worship Fully”.
    By being mindful, being prayerful, being thankful God really can lead us to enough.