A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations…

Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry

If I heard this right on Youtube, Harry didn’t mean this as a compliment.

But limitations are a compliment. They are a grace. If you want to be human, you have to know your limitations – but even more – you have to embrace them. You have to learn to love them.

Your limitations are a gift from God. They make you what you are made to be. Let me explain –  if you were physically boundless – how could you be held by a lover or know what it is like to dive into a pool? If you didn’t need food – how could you thrill at the smell of baked bread? If you didn’t need love from the outside – how could you  know kindness or passion? Without limitations: you would be everything, but experience nothing.

Limitations give us experience.

Limitations are the ‘end’ of our finger that enables us to experience the great ‘scratch and sniff’  of this great green world. If your finger were endless, you could never know the feel, friction and fragrance of life.

Being human is all about ‘scratch and sniff’ – otherwise why else would God place us in a garden?

So….

Scratch the world with your wonderfully short finger. Sniff the world with your wonderfully  modest nose.  Scratch with curiosity; sniff with gratitude. Love your limits. Be human.

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Roger Edwards joined The Barnabas Center in 1991. In addition to counseling individuals and couples, Roger teaches and leads discussion groups about applying the Bible to everyday life.  He is a licensed professional counselor, holds a master’s degree in biblical counseling from Grace Theological Seminary in Indiana and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  He is married to Jean, and they have seven children.