Limits

I've been pondering limits.

My dictionary app lists multiple definitions, from:
"the final, utmost, or furthest boundary or point...";
mathematical limit as x->infinity, etc.;
informal uses, when someone or something exasperates or delights another to an extreme, e.g. "You're the limit!";
to use as a verb, "to restrict by or as if by establishing limits".

So, one can have a limit, approach a limit, live a limit, or set limits.

I'm intrigued how many directions we encounter limits in our lives. Most of us first encounter limits as children, pushing back on limits set by our parents and others. Then, the tables turn over the course of a relatively few years, and often, we're the ones setting limits, for our children, or others in our daily lives. A few of us can claim that "you're the limit!" exclamation, whether by living on an edge or through comedy. We all approach our final limits, of the allotted days of life, although we don't know when that may be.

Fans of the Eagles may have had their hit, "Take It to the Limit" playing in their mind (or will now, not sorry, because it's a great song!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl9gZSIZqmQ
Randy Meisner was quoted as saying that the song's meaning was "to keep trying". I listened to the song again, and was struck by a lyric that meant little when I first heard it, but was far more powerful years later: "You can spend all your time making money, You can spend all your love making time".
Isn't this so much of the productive years of adulthood?!

Now comes the hard question: what do your limits look like? Are they brick walls, temporary boundaries, approaching infinity, set by others, or self-imposed?

A couple people in Job's life had some hard questions for him. Zophar asked him,

"Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find the limit of the Almighty?" Job 11:7

Eliphaz asked him,

"Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?" Job 15:8

Job suffered. His limits were not his own, and he chafed at those restrictions and boundaries. We definitely sympathize with him, and these questions posed by his friends are good ones, that would rankle if they were our friends posing the questions. As Christians, we know, OF COURSE, Job couldn't find the limit of the Almighty, and limiting wisdom to himself would be OBVIOUSLY wrong. But don't we see this frequently in our world? Don't WE too easily forget that God is without limits and all-knowing?

While I am in no way suffering like Job, chronic illness frequently leaves me feeling my body's limits as painful restrictions. This occurred not long ago when my youngest child was shocked that I used to WALK my now-teenagers to the library fairly regularly, a couple mile trip. She had no recollection of me ever being so active. Even when my limitations are comfortable for my own sake, they can become quite restrictive for my loved ones and my dreams for them.

Also, as I read Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon's book, The Art of Neighboring,

with others in my congregation and community, I'm again struggling with HOW I can be a good neighbor, in the midst of my own needs. Paul shared with the church in Corinth,

"We, however, will not boast beyond limits, but will keep within the field that God has assigned to us, to reach out even as far as you. For we were not overstepping our limits when we reached you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the good news of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:13-14

Am I chafing at limits that shouldn't concern me? God knows what field that He has assigned to me, and that may be further than I realize. Paul suffered with some malady during his life and travels, but he was still the first to "come all the way ... with the good news of Christ."

I think my understanding of my *limitations* may be more mental than physical. No, not that my illness is all in my head, not that. I am not well, physically. No, instead, I may be adding extra limitations by not exploring other options! If you search online about limitations, you can also find articles about constraints leading to greater creativity.

I may not be able to reliably be the neighbor that walks around and knocks on doors, but I could be an online organizer. Maybe I could, with help, assemble a neighborhood directory, or an email list, to keep each other informed. Maybe other ideas, too? My limits do not have to limit my "reach out even as far as you".

What is limiting you?