The Bugaboo of Our Own Limitations

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I don’t fly often but I was recently on a flight when a man in front of me on the boarding bridge got my attention.

I had notice him earlier at the gate. I estimate that he was around 80 years old. Tall, but robust, he was a bit stooped, which was noticeable even in his wheelchair. He had on a wide-brimmed straw hat, which seemed a bit strange because we were in the Anchorage, AK airport. He was with a female traveling companion whom I assumed to be his wife.

When passing from the boarding bridge to the plane, he needed her help because he had abandoned the wheelchair in favor of a cane and was struggling. Out of the blue, he turned to me and said, “When I was younger, I was strong and could walk anywhere. But I had a stroke, and this is how it left me.”

Lacking Strength

Understandably, he was struggling not only with getting on the plane but in accepting his condition with all its limitations. I can certainly relate. I’m constantly bemoaning the limitations foisted on me by age. It ranges from the big things, like tiring easily and aches and pains in continually new places to the little things like lacking the strength to easily open packages, cans and bottles.

But, of course, accepting limitations is not confined to people who have health problems or are aging. There’s not a human being alive who lacks limitations, whether we acknowledge them or not. TV ads give the impression that all young people are strong, able and confident, but we know that’s not nearly the case.

And the limitations aren’t limited to the physical. Sometimes, in fact, it’s the mental and emotional limitations that bother us the most. They include getting upset over frivolous matters; mentally criticizing others when no criticism is warranted; arguing with others when kindness is called for; becoming too self-critical and even depressed over our limitations.

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Then there are what I would call the “spiritual” limitations, which include doubt. Many people of faith and others searching for God seem to believe doubt has no place in the mind of a believer or potential believer. But how could that be? God has given us minds that are sometimes skeptical, minds that look for answers. God did not provide us with certainty and that’s why it’s called faith.

And if you are to any degree a person of faith, you have to accept the limitations of that faith’s beliefs and practices. One religion may be better or worse than others, but God is never summed up by any particular version of faith.

All religions are subject to error because, though God may inspire and identify with them, they are also human. Catholicism, my own faith, has a doctrine of papal infallibility, but it is so narrowly defined that it has little effect or influence on one’s daily life of faith.

Self-Criticism

I occasionally find myself in a fit of self-criticism – going so far as insulting myself because of some short-coming. But I know that isn’t what God wants from me, nor is it how I want to react to my deficiencies.

Instead, acceptance and even gratitude are called for. The writer of the First Letter to the Thessalonians suggests this approach for people searching for God in the Christian tradition: “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances….”

Let’s hope that the straw-hatted man attempting to board the plane eventually reconciles with his limitations. Doing otherwise, in my opinion, brings unhappiness and is an obstacle in the search for God.