"There is something deeply spiritual about honoring the limitations of our lives and the boundaries of what God has given us to do as leaders. Narcissistic leaders are always looking beyond their sphere of influence with visions of grandiosity far out of proportion to what is actually being given. Living within our limits means living within the finiteness of who we are as individuals and as a community- the limits of time and space, the limits of our physical, emotional, relational and spiritual capacities, the limits of our stage of life... and the limits of the calling God has given. It means doing this and not that. It means doing this much and not more." -Ruth Haley BartonI find the truth of the passage to be extremely liberating if you can fully comprehend and accept it. Many people wrestle with the sense of being bound by providence in circumstances...but often the very thing one is seeking freedom from...is what will usher us into a deeper experience of true freedom.
I am finding God big in smaller and smaller things these days. The whole "mustard seed" reality is becoming a peace producing truth. I am letting go of more and more pursuits that are governed by a sense of bigger or better. Process is more and more valuable to me.
As a growing painter, the ability to layer paint with a sense of a bigger process is critical. In order to produce a depth to the painting...I often start with a darker paint underneath...this allows for lighter paint to be layered over the top and the combination of light and dark...produces perspective. You need both to produce dimension to the painting....and I am coming to see the same in life.
"Thou art in small things great, not small in any...For Thou art infinite in one and all." -George HerbertWe have these Sunflowers growing in the church garden...I took their picture the other day, because I love yellow in art. To some our garden has little significance...but to me it is pregnant with inspiration. I discover the Lord in the boundaries and opportunities of the rhythms and seasons. I am captured by the process of it all and the large amount of time that is needed to truly enter into the mystery of growth. It's a piece of ground that isn't that pretty to most people...but to me, I love it.
I love that its not what it will be...and not what it was.
It's a organic prophesy to me.
1 comment:
Great post, and the last paragraph reminded me of this quote by John Ruskin --
"All real and wholesome enjoyments possible to man have been just as possible to him since first he was made of the earth as they are now; and they are possible to him chiefly in peace. To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over plowshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to hope, to pray - these are the things that make men happy....
Now and then a wearied king, or a tormented slave, found out where the true kingdoms of the world were, and possessed himself, in a furrow or two of garden ground, of a truly infinite dominion."
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