A few weeks ago, I ruptured my Achilles tendon. Apparently when you turn 40 and play basketball these things happen. I can’t do much right now. My leg is in a cast. Crutches are my mode of transportation. Much of what I love to do I cannot do.
I am limited in this season.
I hate limitations. Receiving help is hard for me. Being dependent on others is difficult. It is easier, safer, and less vulnerable to be the helper than receiving help. Now I have no other choice but to receive.
From the beginning, I have been processing what God has for me in this season. In the Father’s tender care, he whispered his love towards me that there is grace here. There is a grace in limitation. I tend to think of limitation as something to be conquered, to overcome. Yet, limitations are often a grace of God to bring renewal to our soul.
In having to receive, and not do — I am learning to see life through the lens of presence over performance. I can’t do the things with my family that I want to do but I can be present. I can’t do the physicality of ministry but I can be present. I have found that as my activity ceased, my availability increased.
The trick is as my friend Judy says, is “not to drop the gold after it has been discovered when life returns to normal.” Isn’t this so true! This is not the first time I have discovered the gold of presence or the grace of limitations. But when life returned to “normal” activity…well…I seem to drop it in all the activity.
I wonder…
What is the gold we need to hold onto as students return to school, work returns to offices, activity returns to our daily lives?
ryan b. ingram 