Boundary Lines & Pleasant Places

How the Lord Uses Our Limits & Weaknesses to Lead us Home

I shared on Notes this past week that I am in a low-capacity season, learning to accept my weaknesses and limitations.

As someone who is a doer, an achiever — this has been a hard season to accept. My head and heart brim with burgeoning ideas and dreams that are bubbling, ripe, and ready for the taking. But right there with them is my to-do list, responsibilities, and daily demands, scoffing at the belief there's time to pursue anything outside of what's directly before me. My child whines, the other tugs at my pants, and the other begs for Blippi. Immediately, my hopeful, bubbling ideas dissipate.

In humble surrender, I move on to my next to-do. Stepping into my workout clothes, I am determined to make progress on at least one goal, but as I jump, lunge, plank, and stretch, I am reminded of my injury. Another limitation. Another weakness.

Somedays, it seems like my weaknesses are all that I can see. Overcome by them, I wallow in self-pity because I desire self-sufficiency, but then I am met with insufficiency, even with my best efforts and intentions — not because I'm lazy but because I am limited.

And who wants to be limited?

We want to stretch our limits — stay up a little later, work a little harder, be more, and do more. But sometimes, God wants us to do less so He can carry us through the rest. He wants us to become less, so He can be made great — His power made perfect in our weakness.¹ It's a part of His glory — His divinity characterized by his unlimited nature — His omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. His very existence and essence defies limits. But He chose to limit Himself anyway, subjugating Himself to the limitations and weaknesses of the human body and experience, showing us that limits depict love.

Often, we can look at limits as bad things — mocking reminders of all the things we can't do or all the ways we lack. But what if limits are good things? Just as city limits set boundaries for where we live, work, and play, limits are loving boundaries set forth for our flourishing, guidance, and protection. They remind us of our total need and dependence on God, leading us home.

When life is overwhelming or reminds us of all the ways we are weak and falling short, we have a choice. As Emily Jensen shares in her devotional, He Is Strong², rather than becoming weary or fixating on "'weakness, weakness, weakness,' we need to practice seeing 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.' Instead of obsessing over the myriad ways we're unqualified, unable, and insufficient, we need to rehearse how he is qualified, able, and fully sufficient."

So when life overwhelms you and your weaknesses are all you can see, I pray you will lean into your limits and declare that the boundary lines have fallen for you in pleasant places.³ In our weakness, He is strong, and we have everything we need.

How do you cope with your everyday weaknesses?

In this month's community discussion, we took to the comments to share strategies for how we are practically navigating weaknesses in day-to-day moments. Join the discussion!

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1. See 2 Corinthans 12:9

2. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. That means at no additional cost to you, you can shop while supporting The Life Designer publication.

3. See Psalms 16:5-11 & Psalms 23