Setting Limits? Or Exceeding Them?

A "limited edition" possesses more worth than something produced quickly, economically, and for everyone to enjoy. A weight limit restricts usage to those who don't meet the standard. A speed limit tends to be regarded as the least you can do for those following you. A child growing up in his big brother's shadow can be discouraged by its limitations or propelled to greater heights. In short, limits can be confusing. They can be good for those within them, like not receiving a speeding ticket. They can also be good for those who exceed them, like a record-breaking run. Limits can --well, limit, or limits can challenge and inspire. They can keep you safe or keep you bound.

At the annunciation of Jesus' virgin birth, the angel told Mary, "For with God, nothing will be impossible." Nothing. No limits. Which means everything is possible. Frederick Buechner writes, "God is the master of the impossible, and He is a master of the impossible because in terms of what man thinks possible, He is in the end, a wild and impossible God." Not wild as in unruly or chaotic, but wild as in "exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or imagine." (Eph. 3:20, 21) He is the God of virgin birth as well as the God of life from a corpse. He is the God of a blind man who became a seeing man and a woman who kept her past hidden so deeply she chose to draw water in the heat of the afternoon. God knew it anyway. He is the God of trees from nothing and fish from His word and days that keep on coming one right after the other unless He says otherwise. He is the God of a bagged lunch feeding thousands and a soaking wet altar bursting into flame. He is the God of walls big and thick enough to build a house on falling at the sound of trumpets and a sea that stands at attention as slaves make their way to freedom. He is the God of poisonous snakes whose bite doesn't kill and ravenously hungry lions that refuse to eat kosher. He is the God of beautiful flowers and bright green grass as well as terrifying-looking cheribum (not those chubby little darlings in the buff) with two pairs of wings and four faces. He is the God of kings and presidents and corporate executives and bank CEOs and short order cooks and people who acknowledge Him and people who don't. He is the God who heals hangnails and weeps over war-ravaged ghettos. He is God of the impossible, the God before whom mountains melt like wax and hardened criminals bow. He is the God who does not disregard limits but lovingly establishes them, for our protection and happiness and confirmation as the best image bearers we can be; and He will not be limited in any way but by His own true character. He is not only superior but exclusive; He is the first and the last; and in the hearts and minds of His children He deserves not just to be present but preeminent. He is the God who loves His children and has established laws for their protection and happiness. 

So, what about the limits in your life? Have you been told you will never be enough? Have you believed it? Have you been sent to prison, rendered infertile, raped, handed a slow death sentence, addicted, lost a spouse, scammed out of your retirement fund, beaten brutally by someone you trusted? Have you allowed yourself to be limited by those things? Has your disregard for boundaries left you filled with shame and regret --shame and regret that have become the barbed-wire fence around your life? Do you simply need a miracle in your current situation? Seek out the God of limits, the one who sets them and exceeds them for His glory and the good of His people.