There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to learn where your limits are. Put another way, there comes those times when you learn who you really are and are not.
Each one of us likes to believe we can do whatever we want when we put our minds to it — that there are no limits when we apply ourselves.
I cannot go there anymore. My faith does not let me. Why? Because no one is equipped to be whatever they want to be or do whatever they want to do. This is because each person has certain gifts, talents, proclivities to do this but not that. The truth is to live with yourself in an open, honest and accepting way so that you can learn what those gifts are.
But here is the rub. It’s a common problem. Very often we get this notion that we need to be this or that. We get this notion mainly from the culture we live in: “X trait is better than y because I will shine more, it will set me apart from other people. If I am viewed is a certain way of my choosing, all will be well and good.” Yes you will be satisfied if what you think you should be to succeed is really who you are. If not, you may be happy, successful, and maybe even famous. But you will also be very empty.
Sometimes the “who” God made us to be — and yes I mean it that way — is not the “who” we think should be. When I was called by God to enter the Priesthood in the Episcopal Church it was totally contrary to what I thought I wanted to be. Above and beyond that, I was petrified of public speaking. What was I to do.
Only one thing I could do. If I was going to be that which God created me to be, I would have to trust God’s grace to do it and not give into the fears I was letting define my life. And that is what I did.