When Less is More: The Gift of Our Limits

In a world obsessed with achievement, our unwanted boundaries point us back to grace, rest, and the enough-ness of God

Modern life idolizes ambition without limits.

At every turn we are urged to hustle harder, achieve more, and push past every obstacle in front of us. Limits are treated as weaknesses to overcome, flaws to deny, or failures to be ashamed of.

Of course, perseverance has its place. Scripture reminds us that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Jesus Himself, “for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

Yet not every mountain is worth climbing. Not every opportunity is meant to be seized. And in our restless attempts to “do it all,” we often end up anxious, exhausted, or despairing. What if the very limits we fight against are, in reality, gifts? What if weakness is not our enemy but one of God’s greatest provisions? What if we weren’t created to nurture and chase every ambition within us, but to instead discern and go after only the right and best ambitions?

Limits as God’s Provision

Consider Theodor Geisel, aka “Dr. Seuss,” who once bet he could write a book using no more than 50 words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham, which became one of the best-selling children’s books of all time. The limitation didn’t hinder the author - instead, it unleashed his creativity all the more. Like a frame around a painting, the boundary gave definition and power to the story he was writing.

Life is similar for us. Boundaries that frustrate us can actually become the very structures that shape us into the best and most life-giving version of ourselves.

Scripture gives plenty of examples of this. When Paul urged and pleaded for God to remove his “thorn in the flesh,” the Lord replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” From this experience, Paul concluded, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

Or we could look to Gideon. Before sending him into battle, God whittled down his army from thousands to just 300 soldiers. Why? “Lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (Judges 7:2). It was this tiny, outnumbered force that defeated 135,000 Midianite soldiers, not by its own might but by the power of God.

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These and other stories like them remind us of a truth we can rely on: God’s strength shines most clearly and brightly when we reach the end of our own.

God is wise to impose limits upon us. Our limits humble us. They remind us that we are not self-sufficient and are not under pressure to be “awesome” or “amazing” or “influencers” or to “crush it.” Instead we are created, sustained, and upheld by a God who has no limits. On the one hand, this truth lowers and humbles us. We are not infinite, not invincible, not in control. But on the other hand, it frees us. We no longer need to live under the crushing burden of saving ourselves - or anyone else.

Limits as an Invitation to Love

Our limits not only draw us closer to God; they also make us more compassionate toward each other. When we recognize our own weakness, we grow in empathy for the weakness of those around us - even as we desire others’ empathy for the weakness in us. We become slower to judge, quicker to forgive, and more ready to extend grace.

This posture is one of the primary ways we become what the Bible calls “the aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Even Jesus Himself embraced limitation. The eternal Son of God took on human flesh. By choice, He experienced hunger, fatigue, loneliness, and the ache for solitude. The Gospels show Him withdrawing from crowds to pray, acknowledging the real human limits of time and energy.

If the Word made flesh did not try to do everything at once, why would we?

Embracing limitation is not about laziness or resignation. It doesn’t mean abandoning our own growth or ambition. But it does mean loosening our grip on every ambition and pursuing instead the best ones that God places before us. It means honoring the boundaries God has woven into our lives - including our need for sleep and Sabbath, the stage of life we are in, the doors He sometimes closes that we wish He would keep open.

G.K. Chesterton once observed, “Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame.” The same is true of our lives. God’s frames - our callings, circumstances, and weaknesses - are what give our stories their shape and beauty. What Leonard Cohen said rings true, that “there is a crack in everything; (but) that’s how the light gets in.”

Limits as a Path to Freedom

Our limits, then, are not something to resent or become embittered about, but to receive. Our weaknesses can become the primary entry points for God’s grace in our lives. The pressure to be all-knowing, all-present, and all-competent was never ours to carry. Our finiteness is itself a gift. It creates space for connection (because we aren’t wired to go it alone), for wonder (because we are not in control), and for worship (because Someone greater than us or other people must be).

When we surrender to our God-given limits, paradoxically, we become more free. We find ourselves less frantic, less enslaved to the opinions of other people, and more at peace with the realities - including the good, the bad, and the ugly - of our lives.

This is what Jesus meant by His “easy yoke” (Matthew 11:29–30). His yoke is not easy because life is easy - because it’s not. Even Jesus’s life was not easy. He was a man of sorrows who was deeply acquainted with grief. Rather, His yoke is easy for us because He lifts them from us.

In Jesus, we no longer have to carry what was never ours to bear.

History reminds us of this paradox again and again. Beethoven composed some of his best, most timeless symphonies after losing his hearing. Joni Eareckson Tada, paralyzed as a teenager and later twice a survivor of cancer, has brought hope to millions through her writing, her advocacy, and her radiant testimony of faith in the midst of profound limitation.

Their limits did not destroy them. Instead, those very limits became the channel through which God’s grace multiplied outward. And in a wonderful irony, the limits on their lives have come to expand and enrich our own.

So too with us. To embrace our limits is not to shrink back but to live even more fully into God’s design. It is to learn that belonging and “being” matters more than endlessly “doing.”

It is to remember that we are first and foremost human beings, not human doings.

In the end, our limits will point us back to Christ Himself. Hanging on the cross, He declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The essential work is already done. The question left for us is simple:

Will we live as though it really is?

How Can I Encourage You?

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