Limitations

Limitations, they hold us back, they keep us from achieving what we want to achieve, they show us where we are helpless.

I hate being limited. I’ve always hated it, it’s something I’ve fought against most of my life. For someone my age I feel pretty competent. I can teach myself a lot of things and a lot of things come fairly naturally. That’s probably why I hate being limited.

I hate waking up in the morning, knowing that a job or chore is going to take half of the day, or all of the day. If I come to the end of a day and I haven’t exhausted myself I feel I haven’t been a good steward of the day. There is so much to be done, I often find myself shaming myself for not working harder, not working longer, not spending myself thinner.

There is a part of that which is healthy, the striving for excellence in ones’ work. It’s admirable, and I think biblical to seek to attain greatness in one’s area of work or giftedness. There is a large part that is not healthy. God doesn’t ask us to spend our selves thin just working working working. He asks us to come to Him, seek Him and love those around us. There is a time to work and a time to rest. I think I can often beat myself up for not working harder when I’m missing the point. Live every day as a new day, don’t seek to cross off a list of a dozen projects, but seek to love God and man through the work. Yes work hard, and yes work long when it is needed, but don’t beat your self up because you didn’t put in 12 hours today. Did you love God, did you see others the way He sees them? It’s so much more about quality of work and quality of life than quantity. Live a full life, weather it’s short or long. Live well. Most of us don’t get to the end of our lives and wish we’d spent more time working. We wish we’d spent more time with family, more time pursuing God, pursuing life with others. 

So here is to learning to love myself the way God loves me. To see me the way He sees me. I want to do what He wants me to do. Sometimes that means working 12 hours and getting the job done, sometimes it means putting off on that project and taking in the beauty of the day, taking in the preciousness of the moment. 

Take a moment, look around you, love those you interact with, teach others what it means to truly live!