Beyond Limits

Getting beyond our limitations is a popular subject. We see it in movies. In “Unlimited,” Bradley Cooper took a little pill, NZT, which gave him extraordinary mental powers...way beyond the usual 10 or 20 % of the brain that we normally use.  In “Lucy,” Scarlett Johansen accidentally assimilates a powerful drug and continually develops more and more power until she becomes God-like.

So the idea is out there. We know there is more to us than we usually acknowledge or use.

Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, addresses the issue in his book, Science of Mind.  There are 66 references to the concept of limits, including the words limit, limitation, limiting and limitless.

We know God, or Creative Intelligence, or the Universal Spirit...whatever word we choose to use for the Source, has no limits, has no limit to what it can or would do for us, has no limit to its power. Where the limitation comes in is our ability to use this power, this power for good that is available for us to use.

As Holmes says, “Man is unfolding from a Limitless Potential but can bring into his experience only that which he can conceive. There no limit to the Law, but there appears to be a limit to man’s understanding of It. As his understanding unfolds, his possibilities of attainment will increase.”

So basically, we create our own limits. What is it that we want to do, to create, to be?
We have ideas, we get stalled. We lose focus. We procrastinate. We lose belief in ourselves. Our inner critic does a number on us. Who do you think you are? You can’t do that. Get real.

Rev. Nancy Woods and I are teaching a class beginning October 9 called Beyond Limits. I was thinking this could be a good topic for today’s talk. Then I got sleepy and went back to bed.

I had this very vivid dream. I am visiting a zoo, and I’m surprised to find a leopard roaming around free. There’s a handler nearby but he’s very nonchalant and not paying much attention. The leopard leaps up onto me. I feel his claws digging into my skin. He’s not biting; he’s just hanging on. I call to the handler to help, but he’s busy.
I look the leopard in the eye. I start humming softy; eventually he disengages, but I’m upset.

I need to get to another part of the zoo...I see other people up ahead. But I also see Bengal tigers roaming around. Really? Loose? What the....?  I need to get from point A to point B. But through Bengal tigers? Other people have done it. What’s up?

I wonder: Are the tigers real? Are they carnivorous? Are they on tranquilizers? Are they going to pounce on me? I wake up.

So here’s the thing. If I’m going to accomplish my own dreams, I need to get past the tigers. The tigers are my perceived limits. When I see  a video of myself speaking,  my inner critic notices everything that’s wrong and I think...I can’t go forward. I’m too old, too this, too that.

Those tigers, those limits, are blocking my path. And I have all kinds of hidden beliefs about those tigers, those perceived limits. I have to somehow make friends with those perceived limits and move beyond them.


And as Holmes says, “Trust the Universe. God is always God. No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation may be, there is always a something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. We may stumble, but always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.”

So on our quest to sing our song, whatever it is, whatever form it takes, we CAN move past our own perceived limitations, our own tigers blocking our path to enjoying all that life has to offer: health, wealth, loving relationships, creative expression, joy and more.

And so it is