I wonder if one of the hardest things in life is accepting our limitations. In our Western culture, we are praised for our accomplishments and ability to “do it all.” We are expected to be able to handle everything in our lives ourselves, and to make it look easy while doing so. If we can’t, we are seen as weak.
I have always been aware of my weakness.
Living in our culture, I constantly feel less than and “not enough” as I compare myself to the people (and particularly women) around me. I see people holding down two jobs, going to school, and somehow managing to travel and have their own side business. To me it’s absolutely insane, as I struggle to have enough energy to get out of bed most days. I feel ashamed at my lack of ambition or inability to do as much as everyone else. I feel like a Mary in a world full of Marthas. But I wonder what all this restless activity is for, anyway. I want to use my time intentionally, and maybe that doesn’t look like doing all the things. Maybe it means being present with the people around me and accepting my limitedness as a human being; allowing that to reflect God’s unlimitedness.
Maybe we have been understanding strength in completely the wrong way. Maybe it’s not how much we are capable of in ourselves, but how much we are capable of with God once we realize how incapable we actually are. Maybe we have been distracting ourselves from our own incapability by trying to prove to ourselves that we can do everything. But maybe this is all an illusion, and once we come to the end of ourselves we can experience true power.
The power of Jesus does not require human strength to operate- in fact it operates best in our weakness. Our strength is feeble compared to His, and we only have access to it through His spirit in us.
The fact that I have always been so aware of my own limitations may be the biggest blessing He has given me in my life, if I can choose to see it that way. Just as God broke Jacob’s hip to make him know his own humanity, so are we blessed when we wrestle with God and realize that He is God and we are not.
So instead of getting frustrated or down on ourselves when we feel weak and unable, we can thank God. We can rejoice that He has given us the privilege of knowing He is everything and we are but clay formed by His hands.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
rhythms of grace 