Have you ever been told that you’ve reached a maximum level of accomplishment in some activity of your life and you shouldn’t expect things to get any better? Perhaps your career has hit a standstill, you’ve put up with a mediocre income, or you’re not improving as a musician, artist, athlete, mother or father? Or a health issue remains unchanged?
During my tennis lesson last week, my coach was teaching me how to improve my forehand. His tips were making a monumental difference. As I continued to hit balls back to him with grand success, I started to rejoice in how much improvement I was making. It felt really good to get better!
I’ve had three different coaches over the last six years of learning this sport. They come and go at the clubs. My first coach taught me all the basics. We were together for 3 or 4 years.
Before he left to get a Masters degree at a far away college, I asked him what I needed to work on. We had, and still do have, great respect for each other, but what I heard was, “You’ve about reached your level of accomplishment in tennis Evan.” I was a bit disheartened. I knew I was a slow learner, at least I felt that way, but I wasn’t ready to resign to no improvement from then on. “But maybe he was right,” I wondered. Maybe I just wasn’t going to get any better. And I plodded along for another year or two on my own.
Then I found this new coach who had a fresh approach and new ideas to improve my game. He didn’t see me as having reached my peak. He saw a huge opportunity to turn me into a better player. And he has succeeded, quite rapidly, actually.
So, at my lesson, I was grateful to have broken through the lie of “Evan, you’ve reached your peak. You aren’t going to get any better.”
Then I began to think about my patients, neighbors, friends, relatives, who might be laboring under the same lie of, “You’ve reached your peak. You aren’t going to get any better.” And I was repulsed by the suggestion. It just isn’t true. There are no limits on how much of God’s talent and skill we can reflect.
If we see ourselves as limited mortals, we unwittingly accept limitations into our lives and live them out. But if we are clear that we are unlimited immortals, we instantly rebel, protest and vigorously work to overcome any limitations mortal mind would impose upon us.
“With God, all things are possible,” Jesus Christ instructed. Believe and live the benefits! You CAN improve your game…
Wow! I couldn’t have read anything more hopeful this morning! I haven’t reached the limits of my capacity to understand and demonstrate life in Spirit. Yay….
Thank you for this wonderful read! This has been something that has been a focus for most of my life.
When I was in school (elementary through high school) I had the belief of a stuttering problem. This is something I worked on through most of my grade school years. I tried different tactics to speak and get around words and sounds that were problematic. And of course there was constant prayer. In 10th grade the stuttering was so present that I had difficulty completing a single sentence.
Society was telling me I had all these limitations. There were things I just could not do. However when a belief of a limitation is presented, that is when it is my duty to actively stand up to it and rebel against it.
This is what I did.
In 10th grade I became more active with drama classes. I also participated in a couple musicals. In college, I ended up majoring in theatre. Since college I have acted professionally in children’s theatre tours, stage plays, musicals, and in a couple small films.
Now I am a few weeks away from beginning my student teaching. By this time next year I plan to be teaching theatre.
Jesus was right. “With God, all things ARE possible.” It is just a talking serpent that says that something isn’t possible. This talking serpent tries to say that there are things more powerful than God. It tries to say that God may have made us perfect, but there are things which keep us from expressing all of that perfection and that there is nothing we can do about it.
This is untrue. We all experience and express unlimited perfection.