GodSprings - March 13, 2016

Can I Rise Beyond My Limitations?

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” Marl 10:48-49 (NIV)

A short poem by Edward Everett Hale, an American author, historian illustrates the inevitability of natural limitations but simultaneously urges us to do what is within our control. It reads:

I am only one, But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something;

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do

No matter what we do, there may be certain natural limitations and being overly anxious to change them may distract us from fulfilling your assignment in life. The 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton once said, “You can put wings on a pig, but you don’t make it an eagle.” There are three kinds of limitations –  natural, social, self-imposed.

Natural limitations are the hand you have been dealt in life by nature e.g. Gender, geographical location, family, physical disabilities, etc. Social limitations are the ones people (including love ones) and society put on you; and Self-imposed limitations are the ones you put on yourself or accept to be true based on what someone or society have as a stereotype about you.

Taking this into consideration there were many limitations that the Gospel writer brings to our attention about Bartimaeus in verse 46.

a.         Blind man – visually impaired (physical)

b.         Beggar – financially dependent

c.         Homeless – socially marginalized

d.         Sinner – religiously condemned (not directly said but we can assume as he is not able to enter/get into the temple)

e.         Identity – name given Bartimaeus (Timaeus means unclean and so his name means  - Son of unclean)

f.          Location – Jericho (most condemned city in the history of Israel)

What Bartimaeus teaches us in this incident is that all these may be perceived as limitations but they shouldn’t hold us down in life. We can’t change the cards that nature dealt us in life but we can determine how to play it out and win in life.

Someone once said, “Know your limits, but never accept them.” Never accept the hurdles people or society put on your way but it is wise to recognize them while you endeavor to leap over them. Scriptures say, “Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God,”! The faith we have in God is what helps us to overcome all our limitations in life.

We have to come to the realization that we have a God looking out for us in “high place.” Helen Adams Keller, American author, political activist, and lecturer, who was deaf-blind said, “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”  He promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age. Scriptures say, “Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light” (Micah 7:8)