No Boundaries!

Along with all the heartfelt thoughts about family this week, I was also thinking about the relatively short span of time, in the overall picture of our lives, that we actually spend under the tutelage of our parents within the realm of the family home.  Yet it is during those initial years of our lives where the foundation of who we are today is laid down within us. As I reminisced about my folks during the last few days, I saw how they allowed me through their precept and example to develop into the one I have become.  Throughout my childhood and into those early adult years they gave me the freedom to follow my dreams.

I was talking to my wife yesterday about how confusing it must have been to them when I sat down in our family living room to talk to them about my desires to go to a Baptist Seminary way back in the mid 1970’s.  You have to understand that I was raised in a staunch Catholic family, attended Parochial School and was a faithful Altar Boy for many years.  In fact, I can vividly remember my Dad jokingly refer to protestants as “PROTEST-ants!” Yet, they put aside any prejudice or preconceived ideas because they had seen the changes in me since I had been together with my young wife and had become quite active in her church.  They listened intently during the conversation, asked many pertinent and probing questions and then threw their full support behind me.

Then there was the time a few years previous to this when I had decided to leave college during my junior year to start a photography business.  I am sure that they were not too happy with that decision, but they stood behind me and even helped me to upgrade my backyard darkroom at their house.  I could go on and on with many other examples, but the point is that their example, through the years, gave me a foundation that freed me from the clutches of the fear of adventuring out into something new and different and released an ability in me to pursue many of the God-given dreams inside me.  Each of those dreams has become a vital part of my life through the years. I finally did make it to Bible School, have continued to indulge my love for photography both professionally and as a serious hobby, and did eventually make it back to college and probably have accumulated more educational classes, certificates of completion and diplomas than any of the off-spring in either my wife’s family or mine!

My wife, on the other hand, seems to be so different than the rest of her immediate family that at first glance, one would think that she was switched in the delivery room!  As I have mentioned before, she has always been vivacious and outgoing, quite adventurous and almost always willing to step out and try something different.  She loves the great outdoors, enjoys camping and hiking in the mountains and taking daily walks around the neighborhood.  She possesses the uncanny ability to stay calm and focused in the midst of chaotic situations (in fact I think she kind of thrived in these situations). It has also been quite interesting to me to observe how she could accurately plan the food supplies for the mired of retreats, breakfasts and dinners that we put on over the years with a very minimum of leftovers!  She has never allowed the fear of the unknown or of some new challenge to stop her from going forward.

As I considered this earlier today, I came to the realization that as I look back through the years, I can remember times when I saw signs of that same excitement for life in Piper’s Dad’s eyes.  There were actually a few incidents early in our marriage years where he did step out and follow a dream or two.  Those were the years that we were probably the closet to her folks.  It would seem that the adventurous spirit that has laid latent in him was put into and allowed to be expressed through my wife.

And that is the way that we trained up our children to be.  While I would love to have our kids living closer to home, they are living their lives in precisely the manner in which they were taught by our precept and example.  Each of them is following their hearts and are pursuing what they believe to be the unique callings of the Lord for them and their families.  They have even pushed the envelope of our upbringing even further than my wife and I did.  It is actually comical to watch for the occasional raised eyebrow of one of the immediate relatives (on either side) when they hear of something that our kids might be up to that is foreign to their way of thinking.  I think that the people in the church that have witnessed our kids growing up are the ones who know our children better than some of our relatives.  They have seen the kids maturing in the Lord and being free to express their multitude of talents under the anointing of God.

This all came to light this morning as I read from Ephesians 3:20 in various translations of the Bible.  The God’s Word version reads: “Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us.  By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”  The Apostolic Bible Polyglot, which is the Bible based on the Greek translation of the Old Testament, renders the word “imagine” as “comprehend.”  That word tends to open up my understanding a little bit more, by implying that the power of God working in us has the ability to open up and expand the very limits of our comprehension beyond the boundaries of our natural capabilities.  Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible says that it allows us to “go beyond the limits of all human descriptions; we can imagine more than even God has specified in his word; and can feel no bounds to our imagination of good.”

Once again, it is the power of God that makes the difference, for He knows the talents and abilities that are inside of us.  After all, He put them there when we were born again into the family of God.  So just as who we are in the natural is indwelt in us early during our childhood years, the unlimited capabilities of our Kingdom heritage is also placed in us early in our Christian lives.  It is up to us to yield ourselves to that power working in us in order to allow the “REAL” us to bloom.  And God is just the One to put it all together for us!

In many ways my wife and I are just like two peas in a pod, but you’d never would have guessed it if you took a look at the difference between our two families.  My family with its 100% Italian background is quite gregarious, while my wife’s tends to be quiet and more reserved.  I once had the mother of one of our youth in the church confide in me that her daughter did not really understand me until she saw the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”  I wasn’t really quite sure how to take that comment until I saw the movie myself.  Then I understood how my outgoing and animated behavior during services was very different than the quiet family lifestyle that they enjoyed!

My point is that God knew who we really were on the inside and the tremendous team that we would become when He put the two of us together! – Wow!  This post is getting long so  I’d better wrap it up! -  The crux of all this is that the real you is the one on the inside that the Lord has designed you to be from the beginning of time.  Have you really sought out and discovered the full boundaries of who He made you to be?  According to our scripture in Ephesians 3:20 there are no boundaries to who you are and what you are capable of doing.  So I encourage you to think about that this weekend!  Take a little time to dream without reserve, and then when you think you’ve reached your limits, allow the power of God working on the inside of you to carry you beyond those limits where the paved roads end and where only He can lead you through!  Wow… what a trip… and it is one that never has to come to an end!  Have a great weekend, stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”