Writing at the blog site for The Christian Scholar’s Review, Donald J. Tellinghuisen offers some helpful insights on the question of limitations.
He writes that people don’t like to think of themselves as having limits. We ought to be able to do or have whatever we set our mind on. For some Christians, even, to admit to having limitations is to admit to sin. The idea of overcoming limitations is popular today, and the media and Internet are the whipping-boy for constantly distracting us from overcoming the limits we experience. There is some truth to this, of course, but Dr. Tellinghuisen insists we would still be distracted and thus have limitations without these.
Indeed, he insists that “our embodiment necessitates limitation.” We are creatures, after all. Only God is unlimited. He wonders, “how might we thrive as God’s beloved creation, taking serious our creaturely atten-tion?” He suggests that, if we can learn to give focused attention to whatever we are considering, admitting our limits as creatures, we might begin to thrive rather than fret. He explains that “attention acts as a gateway to possibilities.” It is the “entry point” for all our relationships, personal and impersonal. God Who knows and loves us knows no limitations, so we should learn to rest in Him, accept ours, and focus on the matter at hand so that we know and glorify Him. “Realistic self-assessment of our abilities can help us learn to flourish within those gifts, rely on God, and enable us to better grow in all the fruits of the Spirit, not just self-control.”
He concludes, “Limitation, paradoxically, allows for deeper engagement and reflection.” In this I believe he is correct. The more attentive we are to matters at hand, and the more we focus our spiritual energies on knowing and loving God and serving others, setting aside false hopes of invincibility, the more we will flourish as servants of the living God.
