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Learning to accept our limits
'"You have been wandering around ... long enough; turn"' Deuteronomy 2:3
Ever feel overloaded and overwhelmed? As well as the normal 9-5, there's study a job, church commitments. Plus your family want some of your time and - oh yeah, what about that friend who really wants some advice from you this week? It's all too much!
Maybe like me you fall back on that promise: 'I can do everything through him who gives me strength' (Philippians 4:13 NIV). But God doesn't promise we can do everything we want to do, or everything people expect us to do, or even the things other people manage to do. God only gives us grace to do what He calls us to do.
Author Parker Palmer writes: 'I was raised in a culture that insisted I could do anything; that I was without limits, given enough energy and commitment on my part and all I had to do was get with the programme. My troubles began when I started to slam into my limitations...in the form of failure.' Few things humble us like failure.
As with today's reading God will let us circle the same mountain over and over until the scenery becomes so familiar that we're forced to stop and ask for direction; especially when we know in our heart that we're not where God wants us to be. What's your most painful limitation? The one you won't admit? The one you don't want anybody to see? Acknowledge it. Seek honest feedback. Ask for God's help in accepting the limits He's placed on you; for your own protection.
written by Bob Gass
'"You have been wandering around ... long enough; turn"' Deuteronomy 2:3
Ever feel overloaded and overwhelmed? As well as the normal 9-5, there's study a job, church commitments. Plus your family want some of your time and - oh yeah, what about that friend who really wants some advice from you this week? It's all too much!
Maybe like me you fall back on that promise: 'I can do everything through him who gives me strength' (Philippians 4:13 NIV). But God doesn't promise we can do everything we want to do, or everything people expect us to do, or even the things other people manage to do. God only gives us grace to do what He calls us to do.
Author Parker Palmer writes: 'I was raised in a culture that insisted I could do anything; that I was without limits, given enough energy and commitment on my part and all I had to do was get with the programme. My troubles began when I started to slam into my limitations...in the form of failure.' Few things humble us like failure.
As with today's reading God will let us circle the same mountain over and over until the scenery becomes so familiar that we're forced to stop and ask for direction; especially when we know in our heart that we're not where God wants us to be. What's your most painful limitation? The one you won't admit? The one you don't want anybody to see? Acknowledge it. Seek honest feedback. Ask for God's help in accepting the limits He's placed on you; for your own protection.
written by Bob Gass
