Have you ever considered why there are guardrails along the side of the road? There is only one ultimate purpose: to keep you from going over the edge. If we boiled that purpose down a little more, we could say that the only reason guardrails are necessary is to keep drivers alive.

I don’t know any drivers who hope they get to use them, but I bet every driver who has ever had to use them was thankful they were there.

Guardrails let us know that we’ve cut the margin too close, and that we’re dangerously close to ending up in a ditch or down a cliff.

Guardrails don’t move, and because they don’t move, they stop us from moving in the wrong direction.

Guardrails cause damage but prevent death.

Guardrails leave a mark, but they allow us to leave an accident.

We need guardrails even though we don’t like the way they make us feel.

We need guardrails in every area of our lives because none of us drive our financial, emotional, spiritual, or social lives as well as we think we do.

The other day I was running and listening to a book. I do this a lot — especially since running and reading a book is really difficult. Anyway, this book is one by John Ortberg and I really love the way he pulls things out of the Bible and as I listened, I heard a phrase that I’d never noticed before.

He was reading about the time that Jesus was transfigured on a mountain in front of Peter, James, and John and I heard him say, “When they became fully awake…”

I made a quick mental note, finished my run, and came home to look up the different gospel accounts of the story to see if I had heard correctly. I had. It’s right there in Luke 9.

“Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.” (Luke‬ ‭9:32‬ ‭NIV‬‬, emphasis mine)

Why aren’t we seeing the glory of God in our generation? Could it be that we’re not fully awake? Have we learned how to sleepwalk through our religious activities? It’s so easy to allow someone else to be brilliantly changed without it really affecting us. That’s exactly what happened here. Peter, James, and John slept through a moment that they couldn’t get back!

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed how often Peter fell asleep, but he did sleep through a couple of pretty important moments. Here he just about missed the one shining moment of Jesus’ life, and later he slept through the time of Jesus’ greatest need in the garden. The man was most definitely not the picture of living fully awake, and I think he learned something valuable from it.

After all, this is the man who went on to write these instructions to believers everywhere:

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter‬ ‭5:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬, emphasis mine)

Living fully awake allows us to see God’s glory. It also allows us to see our enemy’s approach. We’d be wise not to miss either of them.

I try not to write on my blog about messages that I preach in the church that I pastor, but yesterday’s message was so strong that I find myself still thinking about it this morning. I know that I have to get the next message ready (Sundays never stop coming!), but I sense that I need to hang out a bit longer on this one.

In a world where everyone wants to have more and feels the pressure to be more, I think the good news of the gospel speaks a better word, and for me, in this season, that better word is “enough.”

When I’ve had enough, I stop being a victim.

When I have enough, I stop being a keeper.

When I am enough, I stop being a chameleon.

Here’s the thing about those statements: if we’re going to live them out fully and consistently, we need to embrace one more “enough” truth. We need to accept that Jesus is enough.

I love how Paul put it in his second letter to the Corinthians. He had just written about the struggle of not being able to please everyone (see 2 Corinthians 2:16) and had responded to that struggle with the soul-wrenching reality that he wasn’t enough! “Who is equal to such a task?” That word equal means adequate, sufficient, competent, or enough.

Ever been there? Pulled by the preferences and opinions of the people you really love and want to please? Caught in a tug of war between who you think you are and who you think “they” want you to be? I can feel the pressure even as I write those words and I find myself crying out with Paul, “I’ll never be good enough!”

I’ll never preach hard enough or deep enough or long enough or short enough or funny enough or theological enough or pentecostal enough or … the list is as endless as the people listening.

And yet, just 6 verses after Paul cried out in the realization that he would never be enough for everyone else, he wrote these life-giving words:

“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians‬ ‭3:5‬ ‭NIV‬‬, emphasis mine)

When Jesus is enough, my competence, my sufficiency, my adequacy — my “enoughness” — comes from him.

When Jesus is enough, I stop being a vagabond.

When Jesus is enough, he makes me enough, and because I’m enough for Jesus, I am enough, even if I’m not enough for everybody else.

And so are you.