Self Imposed Limits

Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Lent:
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:23-31, Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38

In light of this the 2nd Sunday in Lent, I'm talking about limits. Historically Lent has been a time of limits, of placing voluntary restrictions upon ourselves that we might more enjoy what God has to offer us. I like this quote from St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), "God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them." Limits can be those ways in which we learn to leave our hands open to receiving the good things God is offering us. When we set something down, rather than clinging to it, we can always pick it back up again, or learn we don't need it.

In the course of reading this past month I have come across people who are arguing for self-imposed limits. One uses a sports analogy,* and the other uses one from nature;** I’ll refer to both of them here. In baseball, we have limited the size of the field, and the equipment used. Remember when wood bats were replaced with aluminum? Now the pros are back to wooden bats again. Geese limit themselves to one mate for life. This gives the mated geese the advantage of not needing to waste valuable energy on mating rituals to attract a new mate each season.
In an age of economic chaos, worry and down turning, talking about limits seems a bit strange. However, think about the following scenario. A natural disaster forces you to live for an indefinite period of time in a three-car garage with ten other people. Survival depends upon self-imposed limits to water usage, food consumption, etc. I would imagine there would even be some serious discussion and outrage if one of the ten people wanted to add a car to the garage to protect it from the weather. While the earth can support enough for everyone, including the 25 + million other species, we may need to spend some time thinking through how we would like to limit ourselves.
“Loving our limits can set the stage for our life. As we recognize that we only have one Earth – which has finite capacity to support life – becoming comfortable with limits will open our minds and hearts for the work of taming the appetite.
“Global living doesn’t attempt to impose limits on others. It doesn’t necessarily advise one to escape to the country or move into compact urban cubicles. It seeks to inspire our creativity, our ability to see that there are infinite satisfying lifestyle packages compatible with living on a finite, equitable share of nature. Global living seeks to give you the tools to be the architect.”***

*Gene Logsdon. “Seeking Personal Freedom in a Money Dictatorship: An Address to the Second Luddite Congress.” The Plain Reader: Essays on Making a Simple Life. Scott Savage, Ed. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998. 5-9.
**Jim Merkel Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on the Finite Earth. (New Society Publishers, 2003.
***Ibid. 16.