What potential is inherent in the state of being human? One voice urges us to live as if there were nothing in our way, while another cautions us to consider our limits. Throwing ourselves outside those limits is dangerous. It risks us - our comfort, our sanity, the futures we plan for ourselves, and sometimes our very lives. But what if we had no limits? Of course, experience will quickly teach us that we do, so the question is merely theoretical. Here's a better one: What if we acknowledged our limits, took a deep breath, and stepped right over them?
Why would we do that, though? Surely there is no reason to risk everything unless we are fully convinced that whatever we might discover in that place beyond ourselves would be worth the everything we were risking. For that kind of conviction we cannot look to our own hearts. We cannot even look to others. We must look higher. Only in reaching for the heavens can we find the place where our abilities end and Something beyond them must intervene, or we are lost. In that place we are forced to cry for help. Unless we are confident that we will be answered and not only answered but aided, we are not ready to go there. But we're never ready. That's the point. We cannot have full confidence that everything will go in any way we could hope or imagine because the act of stepping beyond our abilities, beyond the facts of our acknowledged failures and incompetencies, requires us to experience what we cannot experience until we surrender our confidence to Something more trustworthy than ourselves.
I'd like to try something with you. Think of something you know you can't do. It doesn't have to be what you consider grand or heroic. Just anything: running more than a mile, singing in front of others, looking over the edge of a cliff, water skiing. You have to be firmly convinced that you can't do it. No cheating, especially at this point.
Once you've chosen an impossible feat, decide why it's impossible. Are you out of shape? Are you tone deaf? Afraid of heights? Afraid you'll drown? Whatever it is that makes the feat impossible, acknowledge it.
Now do it. You know you can't. But pretend that you and someone you love are both going to die if it isn't done. I'm serious. This isn't just for fun. You HAVE to do this! It's all up to you, but...you'll fail. So where do you turn?
Try this: right before you begin the impossible-feat-that-must-be-done, pray. Then don't try to do it yourself. Remind yourself again and again that there is Something beyond you. You can't do this. He can. Believe it.
If you don't really believe, there's no way this is going to work. You have to step past the point where you have any consolation or confidence. Just try it.
Whether or not the feat is successful, please share your thoughts or any lessons you learned. Thank you.
It would take an act of faith to get me to the edge of a bluff. I know all things are possible though. I love reading your blogs and am going to try once again to post something.
ReplyDeleteLove you, Grandmama
I thought I read this somewhere else?
ReplyDeleteanyway in my line of work limits are the key to solving problems. We find what our limits actually are and then find a solution. To find even a better solution we simply find new ways to get rid of limitation and to push them back.
I life it works much the same way we are often box in by what we thing are limitation but if we look carefully the limits are often much wider than we imagine and when we throw God into the equation all the limitations we thought we had are completely blow away.
I think sometimes failing is the point. Of course, I'm drawing a contrast between sinful failure and what you might call natural failure. I'm defining "natural failure" as any result that keeps us from our original goals. Failure in this sense often teaches us more than success can.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, we have to be willing to be broken. We have to be willing to crash and burn and still trust God to lift us back up. It isn't always about passing through the battle unscathed. Sometimes true faith gets us scarred. Sometimes faith is laying down our lives.
I don't think any of us would plan on getting beaten up and down, captured by our enemies, brushed aside with scorn before we get to state our case, stricken with disease when our life mission is almost within reach, or any of a multitude of the woes that can befall us and keep us from completing plans in this life. We certainly don't view this as "success". But sometimes it's necessary.
So no, failure doesn't always mean we didn't have enough faith. It can mean that we trust God to work even through the worst of circumstances to bring the world to his ultimate perfection. We seldom understand His full plans, and we never control them. Knowing that, the only way to live without anxiety is to believe that the good He has promised us will ultimately come to fruition. Faith looks at His character and tells us that there is a reason even for our most agonizing and seemingly pointless sufferings.
Does that make sense?