Believe that He Can, Not You Can't: Trusting God to Expand Your Thresholds

"And so, dear bothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice- the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think . Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others." Romans 12: 1-5 NLT

I have been struggling with the concept of thresholds vs. boundaries. Boundaries keep us safe and provide structure. They are guardrails and rules put in place to help us follow after God passionately
. They are meant to help us and not enslave us.

Then there are thresholds. Places where we believe that our limit is. Thresholds are were our current max is. Thresholds can be pushed and change. Seasons and stages put our thresholds in constant flux and adjustment. Thresholds usually manifest in one of two ways. They can be unhealthy or based on hard circumstances. Illness, death, divorce, loss of a job or other tough situations can cause us to push our threshold to an unsustainable place.

The second manifestation, while still hard, is very different from the first. It is a flux that happens when we are called to something. When God whispers in our ear and shares his heart and vision with us, it is rarely easy or convenient. It likely isn't something you would have necessarily chosen for yourself.  But the calling is loud and clear. It will also cause us to push the boundaries of our thresholds, trusting Jesus to fill in the places where we lack and to give us the energy that we require to fulfill the mission to which we have been called.

This is where I struggle. The gray area between a boundary and a threshold. As a reformed people pleaser, I am fully aware of the boundaries, the protective lines in the sand that must be in place to allow me to say yes to the things I am truly called to and no to good but not great things. But as a doer, someone who believes that actions are necessary with our faith, I believe our perceived thresholds can become an excuse for us to create unnecessary boundaries.

I have watched others, with great sadness, as they stand on the sidelines and opt out of truly sacrificing and giving of themselves because of thresholds. They simply don't believe that they are capable and struggle to believe that God will provide. Their threshold becomes an excuse to allow others to do the work of the church while they stay comfortable in their circumstances.

As I look back, I think of the different life adjustments that I have gone through: marriage, babies, jobs, ministry opportunities. I have often questioned whether I could add one more thing to my spinning plate collection. For me, when the calling is true and in line with the heart of the Father and His will for my life, I have found Him faithful in giving me everything I need to add what I am being called to do. I have learned to push my threshold limits: to enter the tunnel of chaos that change brings knowing and trusting God for what is on the other side. We are called. We are called to be living sacrifices. We are called to allow transformation of the heart and person to who He has for us to be. We all have a function and a purpose, if we will follow through with the mission we have been given. 

The tunnel of chaos that a new season or change can bring is always followed by the adjustment of the body. We learn to live on less. Less sleep, less time, less energy. First we survive it and then with time, we learn to thrive in it. But we must allow our bodies to do more than we believe that they can in order to grow.

Friends, have faith. God will always equip us to do what he has called us to do. Believe that He can, not that you can and push your current thresholds to do what you don't think you can. The joy that is on the other side is worth the struggle and the deep relationship that results in this kind of faith can't be formed outside of the fire of struggle.