The Limitless God

"I can't."

I realized that although I may not verbally communicate these two words with others, this belief can (sometimes) be found in my language, actions, and reactions.

There was a study done by Carol Dweck on mindsets - growth mindset versus fixed mindsets. Many people have fixed mindsets - meaning they believe that they are born with a set amount of intelligence and no matter what they do or how hard they try, it's not going to change. However, people with growth mindset believe that their intelligence keeps growing as they struggle and persevere through difficulties (as their neurons keep making more connections). I find her study to be super interesting! Lately, I've been reflecting on my life and I do see the times that I struggled, grew, and learned, but at the same time, I see the times that I limited myself and said "oh, I can't do that," "that's too hard," etc. (things along these lines) or thinking that other people were just smarter than me. Whenever I thought I couldn't do something, I would give up even before I tried harder to learn or improve. Or if I did try, I would try, but give up once things became difficult. But whenever I believed that I could eventually do it or just wanted to learn, no matter how hard it was, I would keep trying to learn and persevere. There's a stark contrast!

Looking back at these short twenty-one years of my life, God has lead me to places I've never imagined that I would ever go to and do things that I would have never imagined myself doing (going to Mexico and Uganda, taking family photos, giving messages, etc). I realized that when we place limits on ourselves and others, we may hinder their growth from becoming who God created them to be. At the same time, there are times you have to give up dreaming hopelessly about something that is not going to happen (but that is up to your discernment). So if you want to do something and learn something new, why not? I suppose because it takes effort, perseverance, motivation, and most importantly, a willingness to learn. I think we often see the polished version of others' success and we don't see the grind and all the hard work behind everything they've done. But really, if you want to learn, why not? I've been studying wedding photographers - and I wonder why some businesses keep growing while others plateau and kind of dwindle away. I realized that people who are successful are always willing to improve, and learn (from mistakes and from others). If something doesn't work, they don't keep doing it. They are willing try new things and if it works better, they adopt it as part of their business and workflow. However, there are photographers who are stuck in their ways and they don't seek to improve. They settle. They don't seek to keep learning.

So lately I've been learning that God is not the God of limits. Pause and just think about this: he created us for eternity. How crazy is that in itself? But whenever we face difficulties and struggles, we believe Satan's lies that we can't, that we're not good enough, or that we're not capable, and we give up. Let's dream big. Let's have a vision for our future and for each other. Let's persevere. As we persevere and push for more, there will be breakthroughs. As Christians, we reflect and glorify God. Whatever you do - be the best version of yourself. Be humble. Be willing to learn from your mistakes and from others. However, I believe there's a point where we have to lay down everything down before God - the good and the bad - all of our fears and dreams. Sometimes we have to fully surrender our dreams to God and let them die, but God can bring the dead to life. When he does bring the dream back and bring forth the dream to life, it will be even more beautiful than we imagined them to be.

Here's a super encouraging video that I recommend watching:
https://www.facebook.com/jeremycowart/videos/10153274835971260/

"I can do all things through Christ"