Faith | Human limitations can be explored through spirituality
Limits are part of the human experience.
Limits and limitations remind us of what we can and cannot do, where we can and cannot go, who we are and are not.
Some limits, like solid walls of concrete, are essentially fixed and unmovable. Other limits, like sections of chain-link fencing or even the straps defining waiting lines, are flexible and movable. Either way, limits define, confine, and refine our playgrounds, backyards, neighborhoods, work areas, personal spaces, capabilities, opportunities, and life experiences.
Sometimes limits are placed there by the way things are, say a river, coastline, valley, or mountain range. Floods of ocean or rainwater, earthquakes or violent storms remind us of our limitations and vulnerabilities as persons and as people.
Sometimes limits are placed there by the way people behave and how people treat others.
History is tragically replete with cultural and political margins defined by unequal power and privilege whereby one group restrains the rights and opportunities of other groups. The ways we are raised as children create certain parameters or conformations on relationships, education, and safety that in turn shape our perspective and participation in society. Call them limitations of nature or nurture.
Sometimes we chafe against controls, like horses kicking against the corral, yearning to get out to larger or hopefully greener pastures.
We, too, may be dissatisfied with our present situation or condition and desire more abilities, resources, or chances to strive for something more or new or different. Many want to know why some people erect and defend destructive limitations that harm and hold the lives of others.
The final limit, of course, is that of death, which confronts all of us sooner or later; no one gets out of here alive!
This limitation lingers in the background of our existence, individually and communally. Author C.S. Lewis called Death’s limitations the “shadowlands.” In Mexican cultures, the limit and reality of death is personified as “La Muerte.”
Sure, we may pretend that death won’t happen to us, or we may, in the words of poet Dylan Thomas, “rage against the dying of the light.”
Spirituality explores the depth and breadth of human limitations, asking the hard questions of limits to our being, belonging, and behaving.
It’s hard to admit that we are not God, despite various aspirations and expectations. Thus, if we will pause to reflect, we may want to learn what it means to be mortal (doomed to die).
How, then, shall we live?
Religions, in turn, offer answers or theories to those deeply profound questions, responding to our limitedness, and offering meaning and purpose to living life within barriers and boundaries. Unfortunately, some religious answers push guarantees and platitudes about the unknown, substituting wishful certitudes for honest, humble, hopeful faith.
Nevertheless, following the advice of theologian H. Richard Niebuhr, within your limited number of days may you receive peace in accepting and honoring your limitations, courage in changing the limits that need not or should not be there, plus wisdom in knowing the difference.
Timothy J. Ledbetter, DMin, BCC is a retired American Baptist-endorsed professional chaplain and member of Shalom United Church of Christ in Richland. Questions and comments should be directed to editor Lucy Luginbill in care of the Tri-City Herald newsroom, 4253 W. 24th Avenue, Kennewick, WA 99338. Or email lluginbill@tricityherald.com.
