Last night, I found myself sitting up late into the night attempting to understand the Koine Greek translations that I had done when I was in the midst of my seminary education. Thinking back on my Hebrew and Greek classes, I remember them fondly. In fact, in my mind, I was quite good at them. Atleast, I was good at them compared to now.

I was horrible at them. I was often in tears as I tried to study, but man, I’ve never studied as hard as I did when I took those classes.

My professors took pity on me. They helped me read aloud in class when it was obvious I was mortified; they offered me study sessions and extra homework that was really just more practice. They offered me tissues and hot tea when I came to them crying in their offices.

Greek was possibly the worst. Atleast with Hebrew it looks artistic. It was something so otherworldly that it made it more interesting. But that Koine Greek gave me nightmares. Luckily, there was Sarah Tanzer, possibly the greatest and most compassionate woman I’ve ever known. For someone practicing the Jewish faith, she took more pity on a bunch of Christian students than we have ever deserved.

On the last day of class, we took our exams, and with a heavy heart, I turned mine in. As I was handing Sarah my paper, I was openly weeping. (I did a lot of crying during my language classes.) Sarah asked me why I was so upset, after all, I was finished. I told her, “I’m afraid I’ve failed your classes. I tried so hard but I don’t think it was enough. I don’t know how people do this.”

Sarah sat behind the table, tilted her head a little and smiled at me like all the other times she was secretly saying, bless your little Christian heart, and said, “Shelley, sometimes enough is enough. And you gave more than enough. You’re going to be just fine.”

Sometimes enough is enough. I can’t say how much enough is, because its different every time. But sometimes, you just have to be okay with enough.