Limitations

Last night Anthony graduated from Cub Scouts. It was a special moment but bittersweet, as he had to face up to his decision not to bridge to Boy Scouts.  One by one he watched his buddies go through the bridging ceremony and on to the next phase of scouting and the feeling of being left behind overwhelmed him.

It's tough being stuck between wanting to be included and yet not wanting to be accommodated for. I think this is especially true for those with special needs. It's not about being ungrateful for the love and effort that people all around you are putting in on your behalf to make you feel included in things, but rather more about wanting to be independent, self-sufficient and proud enough to stand on your own without the help.

What I tried to explain to my son was this: we all have limitations. I may be able to throw a football well but I am laughable on roller blades. I may be able to write but I cannot help him with his fifth grade math homework each night. He MAY never scale a mountain, or hike six miles to a fishing pond, or swim in a lake. That will all depend on two things initially: how hard he is willing to work on himself physically (stretching, yoga, swim lessons and the treadmill at the gym) and mentally (being willing to push himself beyond his fears of injury, wheel chair time at school or another surgery).

After that? What's left will depend on God, who makes us all, in outline form, sketches as it were, before allowing us to fill in all the details and colors of who we will be. In the Lord we must respect the boundaries of that initial sketch and trust in Him that we are drawn a certain way for a reason and for a purpose. There are innumerable examples of men and women who conquered their limitations. Einstein, Edison and DaVinci all overcame dyslexia. Keller was blind. Lincoln suffered his entire life with chronic depression. Newton, Dickens and Alexander the Great all struggled with epilepsy. Even one of the doctor's who helped bring Anthony into the world is handicapped and now runs the entire NICU at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, watching, like an angel, over all those at-risk babies and helping to shepherd them through their crisis.

Someday Anthony will see that, viewed in the proper way, every limitation is really just an opportunity of transcendence.