If There Were Limits

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If there were limits …

~We would have never discovered penicillin

~We would have never tried open heart surgery

~We would have never gone to the moon

If there were limits …

~We would still walk and ride bicycles everywhere

~We would still believe the earth is flat

~We would still use rocks for tools

If there were limits …

~A woman would not be running for president

~A man with limited political experience would not be running for president

~We would still hate just because we can

Consider this:

If there were limits …

~The University of Washington men’s rowing team would not have won the 1936 Olympics.

~Wilma Rudolph would have died a crippled, poor black girl instead of becoming an incredible example of will and resilience and a world class athlete. 

~The Wright brothers would never have become known outside their small circle of friends.

Do you want to write?  Please do just that.  Go and write about whatever it is that intrigues you.  I won’t promise that you will become a best-selling author, but I am 100% sure you will not become one if you don’t write.

Do you want to sing?  Then sing your heart out.  Put it all out there, even if no one listens and pays you.  Sing – Sing – Sing!

When I began writing in earnest no one was knocking on my door begging me to start a blog.  I knocked on that door myself. 

And my friend, if there is no door for your dream, then build a door.  Build a door big enough for your dreams and ideas and then charge right on through it.

Limits you say?

Limits are only places where your footprint has yet to be seen.

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The Tryout

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My wife, Carolyn, teaches piano to a bunch of students.  Two of them recently have screwed up their courage to try out for one of the jazz bands in their respective schools. 

This is no easy moment at which to arrive, especially for an eighth grader and a sophomore in high school. 

Their fears were large and foreboding.  Their secret conversations ran something like this:

What if I’m rejected?

What if I blow it in the audition, or forget my place in the music?

Am I good enough?

Our lives as adults are like tryouts aren’t they?  We try out for a new job, we invite someone over for dinner to begin a new friendship, we launch an idea at work and hope it is accepted, we call an estranged friend or relative attempting once more to restore a lost connection.

Life is a tryout.

And the risk of rejection is ever present. 

Your hopes might get dashed to the ground.

You might go to some new adventure and then find out that is not where you want to be after all.

You may see your future vividly and in color and then never realize that dream.

You might get rejected!  Horror of horrors.

The odds are almost always against us.  There are always those around us who are better qualified, more talented, better looking, speak more clearly, dress more sharply – they are just better … or so we think.

The odds are speaking – and if we listen, we don’t like what they are saying. 

Even if the odds are against us, that is a lousy reason to not try.

Seth Godin says “Will I get in” is not nearly as good a question as “Is it worth trying?”

Oh, my friend.  Try, try and try again.  By all means, with all that is within you, try. 

Remember the two students I mentioned at the beginning?  The girl got her seat in Jazz Band A.  The boy got his spot in Jazz Band B.  He will learn this year in Jazz Band B, and all year long he will keep his sights on the A band next year.

Life IS worth the effort in reaching for the yet unattained goals, because of what it teaches us about US.  We learn by doing, by experiencing.

Try! 

       Repeat!

              Repeat!

                     Repeat!

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When God Bakes

Once upon a time in a small southern church in Tennessee, the new preacher called upon one of the more respected deacons to say the opening prayer.  The deacon stood and began …

“Lord, I hate buttermilk.”

The preacher opened one eye and wondered where this was going.  The prayer continued.

“Lord, I hate lard.”

Now the preacher was really concerned.

The prayer continued.

“And Lord, I ain’t too crazy about plain flour.  But after you mix ‘em all together and bake ‘em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits.”

And the prayer concluded.

“Lord, help us to realize when life gets hard, when things come up that we don’t like, whenever we don’t understand what You are doing, then we need to wait and see what You are makin’.  After you get through mixing and baking, it’ll probably be something even better than biscuits.”

Ain’t it so. 

I don’t like hardship.

I don’t like financial woes.

I don’t like relationship strife and discord.

I don’t like jobs where I am constantly having to learn or re-learn.

But I do like growth.  I like looking back on a situation from the other side of the hardship and thanking the God of my understanding that I had that experience and I am using what I learned.

The baking process of life can be a good thing if we are willing to learn how to mix all the ingredients together and let the good things rise to the top.

I don’t like buttermilk.  Boy, do I love biscuits. 

I don’t like the taste of flour.  Boy, biscuits without flour surely are awful.

Maybe we need the distasteful ingredients in life to help us taste the beauty of our lives

Maybe.

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