Sacred Limits

Scripture: “He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” — Psalm 103:14

After the end of the COVID pandemic, I was absolutely burned out and refused to admit it.  I'd created a story about myself that had no room for failure, burnout, or any weariness when it came to doing my job. Other pastors got burned out, but not me.  

I was also going through some absolutely gut-wrenching personal issues on top of everything else.  My marriage was in trouble, and I didn't know what to do to save it.  I was drained of energy, suffering from depression, and finally things broke inside.  

I knew that if I didn't take some significant time off, I probably wouldn't make it.  I decided the best thing for me to do was take a sabbatical, which I'd never done during my time as a pastor.  

For the first two months of my three-month sabbatical, I went for days without even thinking about church or the future.  I wondered if I would ever go back.  I thought about what I could do with my life instead.  

But as my mind and body rested, as I traveled, and spent hours on the road, I began to have ideas about what I could do to change my unhealthy habits, and learn to let go of my desire to be superhuman.  I wrote, journaled, listened to podcasts, and began dreaming again about new ideas for my church, particularly how we worship and how we are structured in leadership. 

In short, I came back rejuvenated and renewed, ready to step into the next chapter of my life as I served the congregation I loved.  I had learned a valuable lesson.  

Many of us carry a quiet but powerful belief that needing rest, slowing down, or reaching our emotional limit is somehow unspiritual. We equate strength with endless capacity and weakness with being human. But Scripture paints a very different picture. 

From the beginning, God wove boundaries into creation itself: day and night, work and Sabbath, land and sea, seasons of growth and seasons of rest. Humanity was created with limits, not because something went wrong, but because that is how God designed life to flourish.

Psalm 103 reminds us that God “remembers that we are dust.” This is not a judgment—it is compassion. God knows our fatigue, our stress, our mental and emotional bandwidth, our need for sleep, and our dependence on one another. 

And God does not despise any of it. Jesus Himself embraced the fullness of human limitation. He slept in storms, wept openly, became physically exhausted, asked others for help, and withdrew for rest and prayer. If Jesus—God in flesh—did not treat limits as shameful, why do we?

The pressure to exceed our limits often comes from internal narratives: I can’t let anyone down. I should handle more. I should be stronger by now. I should push through. But limits are not punishments; they are God’s gentle reminders that we are creatures, not the Creator. They invite us back into dependence, humility, trust, and community.

Honoring our limits means saying no when our spirit is strained, resting before exhaustion becomes collapse, pausing before emotions overflow, and letting others carry what we cannot. It means listening to our bodies instead of overriding them. It means accepting that we cannot be everywhere, do everything, or fix everyone—and that God never asked us to.

When we learn to accept our limits, we discover that God meets us most tenderly in the places where we run out of strength. Grace is not found in striving but in surrender. You do not have to transcend your humanity to be faithful; you only need to inhabit it with honesty and trust.

Prayer

Compassionate God, free me from the pressure to be more than human. Help me honor the limits you lovingly built into my life. Teach me to rest, ask for help, pause when I am weary, and trust that being finite is not failure—it is the place where your grace finds me. Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. Which limit in your life are you most tempted to ignore or push past?

2. How might embracing this limit draw you closer to God rather than farther away?

3. What is one concrete way you can honor your limits in the week ahead?